Meitantei
by JelpHasNails
Summary: There are several things that make a detective a meitantei. Part of it entails thwarting thieves, unraveling secret identities, solving murders, and proving a person's innocence or guilt. Having to prove the innocence of one infamous phantom thief while dealing with psychopaths like the one out to harm anti-Kid detectives, is also a part of it for the Heisei Holmes, Kudou Shinichi.
1. Chapter 1: The Trouble With Kaitou Kid

I do not own Detective Conan or Sherlock Holmes.

**Meitantei**

**Chapter 1: The Trouble With Kaitou Kid**

Chasing Kaitou Kid was both a mental and physical rush. As Shinichi ran down the dimly lit hallways of the Beika Chou Shopping Mall, locale of tonight's Kaitou Kid heist, the lights suddenly flickered off. Shinichi's footsteps faltered at the unexpected darkness. His eyes had little time to adjust, darting every which way, looking for movements and traps while he picked up his pace and continued to run after his target. Adrenaline pulsed through Kudou Shinichi's body as it always did whenever_ the game was afoot_. Shinichi found himself becoming even more invigorated as the Holmes' reference popped in his head, his mind whirring over the slight sounds alerting him which way to go. Reorienting himself based on the minor _clunk, clunk, clunk_ of Kid's dress shoes slapping the floor, he continued the chase.

The thought occurred to Shinichi that it was strange that he could hear the thief's shoes, and his pace began to slow. Pondering the facts, Shinichi came to the conclusion that Kid was either a) being careless as he tried to outrun him or b) the thief wanted him to follow which meant something unpleasant for Shinichi. Bouncing lights blared to life behind him from the task force members who were finally catching up, their flashlights in hand.

Just as Shinichi was about to click his watch flashlight on to check for traps, a sudden blinding flash blossomed over head as the overhead lights flared on again. The lights shone brighter than normal for an instant before returning to their usual luminance. In that brief moment, Shinichi had stopped: a lucky break as it gave him a slight chance to react to the puddle of slime that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

Even so, he didn't manage to completely stop himself from stepping into the slick mess.

Shinichi let out a stream of curses as he slipped at the sudden loss of traction between his feet and the ground. While chasing one rather exasperating Phantom Thief, things like that weren't uncommon; but they sure were annoying. Cursing a bit more as his feet slid across the rather slickened vitrified tiled floor, he managed to right himself by grabbing onto the wall. Behind him, he heard a few of the task force members yelling and cursing as they fell heavily to the ground.

It took Shinichi a few moments, but he carefully righted his balance and began to cautiously slide along the floor. Shinichi watched as the Phantom Thief he'd been chasing appeared momentarily before him, waving merrily at his plight all while standing out of reach.

His first reaction was to jump out to try and catch the thief, but he also knew that if he did that he would lose his footing (just like the two task force members next to him did as they lunged after the thief only to fall hard to the ground). Instead, Shinichi continued to carefully slide across the floor.

As Shinichi was about ready to step onto a non slickened part of the floor, someone slammed into him from behind. He nearly tumbled headfirst into the wall but was thankfully saved when the task force member who had accidentally knocked into him managed to pull him away from bashing his head against the wall. Despite that, he and the task force member landed hard on the floor in a tangle of limbs. When Shinichi looked up again, the thief had disappeared.

Shinichi ignored the sincere apologies of the task force member as he began to make his way further along the corridor.

It took Shinichi longer than he would have liked to wipe the bottom of his shoes against his pants to clear them of the slime, but he was grateful he had done so. While more members of the Kaitou Kid task force arrived, braving the slippery floor, some still sliding as they hadn't bothered to wipe the slime from their shoes, some still slipping on the trail of others' slick footprints, Shinichi noticed the thief's lure. Most of the shops within the mall where the heist was taking place had their metal gates down. Three stores down there was a gate not latched properly; a gap showed the opening a few inches from the ground. However, Shinichi also noticed that one of the ceiling tiles to his left randomly released a small puff of dust. In other words, even if the thief had been in that store, he'd somehow managed to get into the ceiling panels above them and was moving rather rapidly if he was moving heavily enough to have disturbed the dust.

With how the night had been going, Shinichi decided not to chase after the more obvious route lest another slew of booby-traps lay behind the thief's trail.

Not bothering to explain this to the task force members who ran (or rather slid) for the suspiciously opened gate, Shinichi, instead, ran past the store to the stairwell, jumping down multiple steps at a time as he headed for three floors below them. If his deductions were correct, Kid was currently making his way to a window where he would use his grappling hook to head to the roof. The buildings next to the mall would make it nearly impossible for him to open his hang glider until he reached the roof. Since Shinichi had mentioned this to the police before hand, there should still be people ready to catch him on the roof…who was he kidding? None of the task force would catch Kid, but they should at least be able to slow Kid down.

If Shinichi went to the roof via the lift from the garage, then he should make it to the roof just before Kid flew off.

Pushing through the stairwell door, Shinichi ran at full tilt down to the garage level which housed the only current working elevator with access to the roof. As soon as he entered the garage, a stringent smell permeated the air: one he was sure hadn't been there before. He quickly went back the way he came, took a deep breath, held it in, and ran into the garage again.

For a moment he paused, noticing the policemen who had been stationed there were all slumped to the ground, fast asleep. Deciding to keep going, Shinichi's feet flew across the pavement, darting through the haphazardly parked police cars and unconscious policemen. Since Kid had taken a different route to the roof, he must have released a timed sleeping gas sometime before the heist had officially started. Judging by how there was a huddle of officers who Shinichi had seen stationed outside now all passed out on the garage floor, the gas must still be potent. The police officers closest to the exits must have come to check on the people in the garage when all they received was radio silence. Shinichi dodged them all like darting through players on the soccer field until he reached the cargo elevator, jabbing at the up button to take him to the roof. Upon entering, Shinichi punched the close door button repeatedly with his finger, hoping only a little of the gas would sneak into the elevator with him.

As the elevator ascended ten floors in rapid succession, Shinichi finally took a deep breath. The gas still clung around him, making his throat burn as he coughed. While he took a second, third, and then fourth lungful of air, Shinichi reflected on the oddities of this heist and the two other heists that had happened earlier in the week.

The first oddity was the fact that earlier in the week had been Kaitou Kid's first heist in nearly two months. In the past year, Kaitou Kid had been holding an average of about five heists a month. Kaitou Kid suddenly stopping his thieving for two months had seemed extremely suspicious to Shinichi. Before the first heist earlier in the week, Shinichi had almost wondered if Kaitou Kid had given up searching for whatever jewel he was after – or if he had managed to find the jewel that he was looking for.

Kaitou Kid had finally sent out a notice at the beginning of the week and then planned two other heists as though to make up for not holding heists in some time.

At the first heist, Shinichi had noticed a less effective approach to the entire operation. The tricks were easier to see through and his moves were more predictable to the point that it was almost throwing Shinichi off because the thief had been taking the more obvious escape routes. The first thought that Shinichi had was that it was an imposter. Yet something about the tricks, even if they were not quite up to par, seemed to speak of the same techniques. It had been another factor that had almost thrown him off. _Almost._

After the first heist of the week, Shinichi had been fairly certain that the Kaitou Kid he'd been chasing that night was actually the assistant. If the assistant was doing all the legwork, it meant the real Kid was out of commission. And Shinichi wanted to know why Kaitou Kid was unable to carry out heists.

Many elements of the past week's heists spoke of similarities between real Kaitou Kid heists. The only way for someone to know these likenesses and be able to carry them out would mean he was from Kaitou Kid's inner circle. Despite this, it was clear that the real Kaitou Kid was not actually involved in planning the heists. First of all, the heist notices had been very – well, _bland_. Shinichi liked when they were riddles, and while he knew that wasn't always the case, it had been some time since they were so straight forward. All of the challenges to the police had been that week. But despite the blandness of the notices, the doodles were definitely very Kid-like.

In the past three heists, Kaitou Kid had only disguised himself once as a non-descript police force member. He had not done anything with changing his voice, and, in fact, rarely spoke. The phrases and words he used were things Kaitou Kid said on occasion, meaning they were very likely recordings. When Shinichi had met the assistant during the Bell Tree Express Train case, he had learned that the assistant did not have Kaitou Kid's ability to mimic voices.

There had been a lot less taunting and a lot more chasing, as though the assistant needed the extra time in order to escape from the police. He was clearly very intelligent, though not quite as much so as the original. He knew what he was doing in terms of having lights turn on and off at the precise moment, making Shinichi suspect that the reason the police had such a hard time figuring out how to stop Kid from doing certain tricks was due to the help of the assistant.

No, the assistant seemed more than capable of working magic tricks and laying traps. Even though his own intelligence may not be the kind to produce riddles or think of complicated routes to mislead the police, he was nonetheless intelligent enough to plan and hold a rather intriguing heist.

It was the physical prowess that the assistant lacked to truly make the heist last. Shinichi suspected that the assistant was older – a good bit older – and not as able to keep up to the same type of physical demands as the original Kaitou Kid. For starters, Kaitou Kid wouldn't have gassed an entire garage full of police officers just to prevent them from coming up after him. Tonight's Kaitou Kid had led part of the police force one way, tied Nakamori-keibu up and left him in the store where he'd stolen the jewel, trapped another portion in a different part of the building, and then, for good measure, gassed those waiting in the garage using a timed gas release. Usually when Kid used sleeping gas, he at least had the decency to wait until people were close to catching him. It all spoke of being afraid of having too many people after him.

From what Shinichi had seen, the assistant was working solo and unable to use the real Kaitou Kid's help. It left the question, where was the real Kaitou Kid? Why wasn't he coming to heists? Had something happened to him?

Shinichi hoped to be able to question the assistant and ask him. However, while Shinichi had been able to catch up to the thief's assistant and had prevented him from taking the jewel from the first heist, he hadn't been able to corner him.

The second heist of the week, Shinichi had not been able to attend. Having gotten caught up in a murder case which had taken precedent, he'd only gathered information after the fact. Even so, Hakuba Saguru had been to that heist, and Shinichi had heard the other detective had come extremely close – closer than anyone else had (other than himself) – to catching the thief. Apparently the other detective had gotten Kid in handcuffs, but it had been the task force members who had messed up and let the thief go before anyone had unmasked him. Shinichi was fairly certain the real Kaitou Kid would not have been captured as easily as the reports from the heist had implied.

Additionally, the assistant seemed particularly wary of Shinichi, something the original Kaitou Kid was not. It was obvious after the misstep with Hakuba-kun that the assistant would be extremely jittery. The assistant was wary of Shinichi particularly, and Shinichi had found himself victim to more pranks in the past two heists than all the others combined. When he did capture the assistant, he would bill the man for a new tie, a pair of shoes, and a dress shirt. Looking down at the slime covering half of his lower body he added a new pair of slacks and another set of shoes to the mental list.

Moving on from such inconsequential thoughts, he focused on tonight's heist, analyzing the situation so far.

This heist had taken place with an interesting layout; a jewelry store located within a mall. The mall took up multiple floors of a high-rise building with inner escalators and elevators networked in various locations. The fourth floor family run jewelry store had been having an exhibit as the jewelry store owner was showing off the family's heirloom gem: a sapphire that had supposedly been a good luck charm.

After reviewing the layout of the building, Shinichi had been fairly certain that at some time during the heist, Kid would try and direct everyone's attention away from the ground floor. The ground floor had the only access to the garage. Due to its layout, the garage's cargo elevator was the only elevator with quick access to the roof where – obviously – Kaitou Kid would make his escape.

Guards had been posted at the roof and at various windows to thwart Kid from using his grappling hook and to prevent Kid from escaping, but Shinichi had a feeling that Kid would have left the police stationed on the roof alone until the last minute in case someone radioed up to check on their status.

As the elevator slowed to a stop, he heard several muffled sounds as though Kaitou Kid's assistant was dealing with the guards then, meaning one) Kid's assistant would have just unleashed some sort of trick to take care of the guards and two) the assistant would have something ready to take out anyone coming off the elevator.

The elevator dinged open, and Shinichi crouched, rightfully anticipating the concentrated dose of sleeping gas that flowed into the opening elevator. Shinichi covered his mouth and rolled out of the gas, almost knocking into Kaitou Kid. Shinichi noticed that the man wore a mask instead of a monocle, suggesting that it was difficult for him to maintain a disguise similar to that of the real Kaitou Kid's.

Despite the fact that it was the assistant, Shinichi was pretty certain that the man would recognize Shinichi's anesthetic watch gun and wasted no time aiming it at the would-be thief. The thief hesitated as his attention focused on the watch. With the obvious threat of what would happen to him if he moved, Shinichi began his questioning.

"What happened to the real Kid, Assistant-san?" Shinichi asked without preamble. He didn't receive a verbal reply. Instead he had to jump to the side as the assistant pulled out a smoke capsule. His hand movements were fast as they had to be for a magician. Sleight of hand meant doing things quickly to avoid detections.

But the assistant's bodily reactions were slow. Shinichi took advantage of the man's lack of timing, coming up to his side, and delivering a sound roundhouse kick, knocking the capsule from the man's hand. A puff of grayish blue fumes erupted as the capsule connected with the ground several paces away from them, the night air around them slowly blowing the smoke in the opposite direction.

The assistant let out a garbled cry of surprise. His voice was older, as Shinichi had expected. Frantic, the older man turned to flee, but fell as Shinichi approached, making Shinichi stop his advance, even as he made sure to keep his watch trained on the man.

It made Shinichi slightly nervous having the man with his hands on the ground. As Ran had pointed out multiple times, the only move Shinichi had truly mastered from his early karate days was his roundhouse kick. His soccer skills had honed his other kicking abilities. It was therefore quite obvious that Shinichi's strength lay in his legs and feet. Having the man at the angle on the ground left Shinichi with the apparent advantage if he tried to kick anything out of the man's hand. Yet if the assistant seemed so wary of Shinichi, wouldn't he know this? Wouldn't he avoid giving Shinichi the advantage? Had the man fallen on purpose or by accident? What was he planning?

The one advantage the man would have would be to kick Shinichi's legs out from under him, but again, the angle was wrong for it. The man's hands were supporting his weight in such a way that if he were to try and make a grab at Shinichi's feet to block him, it would be ineffective, meaning Shinichi was definitely in the more advantageous position.

"Don't move!" Shinichi said. "If you move, I will dart you. Smoke or not, it will still hit you at this range," Shinichi reasoned. "If you give me the jewel now, I will let you go: as long as you also tell me what happened to the real Kid."

Kaitou Kid's assistant didn't say a word.

"Is he still alive?" Shinichi asked, hoping the thief hadn't gotten caught up in anything that was too dangerous, even for the moonlight magician.

The only sound from the thief was his labored breathing. For a moment, Shinichi was actually a bit concerned about the older man. He hesitated.

"Oi, are you okay?" Shinichi asked, moving closer.

It was the wrong thing to do. Despite the man's labored breathing, he had been waiting for Shinichi to move. A well placed kick from the man beneath him redirected Shinichi's line of fire. Kaitou Kid's assistant rolled, further distancing himself from Shinichi and his anesthetic dart. Shinichi, for his part, had been half expecting it and stepped on the assistant's cape, tugging the man back just as he tried to get up. The thief landed hard, with a pained sounding _oomph_.

Shinichi stepped forward, pulling both the mask and hat off of the assistant. The man _was_ older – wearing bifocals even – and looked terrified. As Shinichi reached a hand out toward him, he flinched, but Shinichi merely grabbed the jewel from the thief's suit jacket pocket. He held it up to the moonlight to check to make sure that it hadn't been switched with a fake before putting it in his pants' pocket. The assistant had watched him apprehensively as he held the jewel up. For a moment, Shinichi thought that man was going to protest, but at the last moment seemed disheartened. Frowning, Shinichi wondered why the fight seemed to have left the assistant. He'd been de-masked, but it wasn't until Shinichi had looked at the jewel that the man's eyes had truly lost hope.

Once again, Shinichi looked at the resigned yet frightened face of the man before him. The scene reminded him of the ending of the Sherlock Holmes' short story, "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."

The thief's statement from the Holmes' story flittered through Shinichi's mind, _"I am myself a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which I sold my character!"_

Sherlock Holmes' action to let the man go, followed by his explanation to Watson quickly ran through Shinichi's mind.

_ "After all, Watson...I am not retained by the police to supply their deficiencies…I suppose that I am committing a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to jail now, and you make him a jail-bird for life."_

Kaitou Kid may be a thief, but he didn't do it for the wealth. Whatever the reason may be for why he stole, Shinichi very likely wouldn't find out if he put the assistant in jail, especially if the original Kaitou Kid wasn't even able to come to the heists.

Without saying a word, Shinichi shook his head. He wouldn't push the assistant any further. If the police came, they came. If not, Shinichi wouldn't stop the man from leaving.

Shinichi turned around and began walking back toward the elevator. He hadn't had time to notice before, but as he expected, the two guards had been knocked out and were slumped against each other. Since the officers stationed at the roof had been knocked out, Shinichi was sure their radio silence would have alerted the rest of the task force to Kid's assistant's current location. They should arrive in less than a minute.

"He's...he's run into some trouble," the assistant spoke. Shinichi turned back around to face the would-be-thief, slightly surprised that he'd spoken. "Perhaps if you were to take Bocchama's case –"

"Kid!" Nakamori-keibu bellowed as the elevator doors opened up again. Shinichi whirled around, barely in time to block his eyes as the assistant released a smoke bomb. Coughing heavily, Shinichi ran to the edge of the building, watching as Kid's assistant opened the hang glider and flew away.

"Kiiiiiiiiiiiid!" Nakamori-keibu yelled again. Apparently any remnants of the sleeping gas had not stayed in the elevator as Nakamori-keibu's lungs were as strong and full of hot air as ever.

"Keibu!" Shinichi said, getting Nakamori-keibu's attention, even as the man barked out orders for his men to follow in a ground pursuit.

"What is it?" Nakamor-keibu asked impatiently. Shinichi handed over the sapphire wordlessly. Nakamori-keibu grunted a rather ungrateful sounding thanks before running after his men to follow who they thought was Kid.

Knowing it was pointless to follow, Shinichi attempted to leave the mall quietly while he reflected on what the assistant had told him, only to be hounded by a swarm of newscasters who wanted details on how he had managed to get the jewel back from Kid. Putting on his own show for the crowd, Shinichi couldn't help but indulge them.

* * *

Later that night, Shinichi sat in his library, fingertips propped together while pondering over the assistant's words.

Run into some trouble? Take his case?

It sounded like some sort of run in with the law. It either meant that Kaitou Kid was being watched by the police to the point where he couldn't escape their notice (which Shinichi found very unlikely with his skills) or that he had been arrested and didn't want to risk breaking out of jail in fear or incriminating himself even further. Whatever had happened had landed Kaitou Kid in trouble that even his lawyer (assuming he was in the position to need one) was having trouble sorting it out. No official statement had been made about Kaitou Kid's arrest, meaning that if he had been arrested, it had been while in his civilian persona. Had he been caught thieving without his usual tricks and disguises?

Somehow, Shinichi couldn't see that. Kaitou Kid went out of his way to tell his task force that he would be stealing something. It was quite possible that he had been wrongly accused if he had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Even then Shinichi had trouble believing Kaitou Kid would allow his civilian self to be captured. There was something else likely going on. Either way, the assistant had made it sound like Kid needed a detective to find the truth to help him out of a sticky situation.

Shinichi couldn't help but smile at the irony.

**Continued in Chapter 2: Introspection…**

* * *

In most versions, part of one of the Sherlock Holmes' quote I used from "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is read as, "…I suppose that I am commuting [sic] a felony…" Since committing had a different feel to it than commuting, I used the more "modern" version. Even so, please note that I believe the original says commuting and not committing since it's likely that what Holmes' meant is that he was lessening the sentence for the crime by letting the guy go (commuting) and not actually committing a felony by letting the guy go since there was "no harm no foul" so to speak. Since Conan/Shinichi lets Kid go if he doesn't actually get away with the jewel (which seems to be always against Conan/Shinichi), I feel his mind set comes from this Sherlock Holmes quote/philosophy. Have you ever noticed he lets people get away with things as long as nobody dies? I would love to know if Gosho has Shinichi/Conan act this way due to that short story. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the first chapter! :)

~ Jelp


	2. Chapter 2: Introspection

I don't own Detective Conan/Case Closed, Magic Kaito, Sherlock Holmes, or Arsène Lupin.

**Meitantei**

**Chapter 2: Introspection**

"Meitantei..."

Shinichi jolted up in bed at the whispered use of his title. His eyes darted around his bedroom, looking for the owner of the voice, only to realize that it was merely a dream – or perhaps his mind playing tricks on him. The sudden rush of adrenaline began to ebb as he lowered himself back into bed, but the numerous bird chirps indicating early morning would no doubt keep him awake.

Not that his thoughts wouldn't do that on their own.

He was imagining Kaitou Kid's voice in his dreams now...he was either more desperate for stimulating cases than he would admit to himself, or he truly was developing a Kid complex.

Looking at the facts – as Shinichi generally did – he was developing a Kid complex.

For the past few weeks his thoughts had been on Kid. Initially, during the first month of Kid's absence, Shinichi hadn't dwelled too much over it. But then, as more time passed, Shinichi had begun to notice the lack of Kid heists. Not that Shinichi was a stickler for routine, but there was something rather miffing about not attending heists. Since Kid seemed to stick to a schedule, warning bells had begun to go off in Shinichi's head. Something was off. And unfortunately for Shinichi, he hadn't been able to obtain enough evidence to figure out what. Those scenarios frustrated him. Waiting for something to happen in order for him to be able to further his deductions left Shinichi stir crazy.

It didn't help that only a few months prior Shinichi had helped put several would-be Kid snipers behind bars. The thought that there could have been more people after Kid's life that Shinichi had not apprehended left him feeling sick to his stomach.

He had spent a good time wondering if and when Kid's next heist would take place. Then there had been three in the last week. It had relieved Shinichi to a degree, but really, Kid still had yet to show. Now that he had finally talked to the assistant, Shinichi's thoughts had been solely focused on Kid. Having finally heard from the assistant that Kid seemed to be in trouble, Shinichi couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect of figuring out a way to become involved in the case. This new clue was like a drink of salt water after being thirsty for so long; it only made him thirstier.

Plus, Shinichi liked when he could predict certain parts of his life. It was the detective in him. If he couldn't speculate with reasonable certainty what was likely to happen, he didn't feel comfortable.

It had been nearly a year since Kaitou Kid and he had first met face to face as Kid and Shinichi, not Kid and Conan, at a heist. It had been almost a year since the thief's teasing yet somehow respectful murmur of his title "Meitantei" had helped to ground Shinichi back to a pseudo state of normalcy after the fall of (most of) the black organization.

As Conan, he had gone to a fair amount of Kaitou Kid heists, but generally they were the ones that took place in Beika or the ones in which Suzuki Jirokichi orchestrated. Having been known for deterring Kid, the elder Suzuki had constantly enlisted Conan's help. Even Nakamori-keibu had not entirely discouraged his presence. Ironic how, as a child, he was more welcomed to Kid heists than as an adult.

Upon returning to his high-school body, he had been more than able to go to heists on his own without needing to worry about bedtime or having Ran or Kogorou-occhan follow him around. Very rarely did he deal with murders during Kid heists. Instead, he could actually enjoy someone else's intellect and creative prowess.

Shinichi put a hand to his face, embarrassed to even admit to himself that over the past two months he'd missed not only the thrill and chase of Kid heists, but the challenge his heist notes could bring. Remembering the past riddles, and especially the first one that he'd solved back in his own body, made him only want to encounter more puzzles.

The first heist that Shinichi had attended as himself, he'd been almost as lost as he had when he'd first turned into Conan. Coming back to himself and figuring out what was and wasn't normal…well, chasing Kid: that seemed normal. Shinichi liked normal. Well, he supposed continuity was a more apt description. There was nothing _normal_ about Kid – or Shinichi for that matter.

When the heists had stopped happening, Shinichi had hoped and prayed for the thief's return. He'd admitted it to Haibara ages ago, as Conan, that he enjoyed Kaitou Kid's heists. They were as challenging, if not more so, than some of the murders he solved. The fact that he was (unofficially) invited to battle wits without someone dying, well, he had started to miss that.

About a week before the assistant had held the most recent heists, Shinichi had started looking into all of Kaitou Kid's past activities to see if he could make a connection to the man behind the moonlight magician. Not long into starting the investigation, Shinichi had come to the tentative conclusion that the thief had likely ceased activities because he had found what he was looking for. He couldn't help but hope his deduction was wrong and that Kaitou Kid would one day reappear. Ironically enough, it was one of the rare times he was glad he'd been wrong.

If more time had passed with no sign of Kid, Shinichi would have taken up the mantle and done his best to figure out who Kaitou Kid really was. There had always been an unofficial rule about the Kaitou Kid heists that seemed to prevent him from doing too much research outside of each individual situation. Not that he hadn't on occasion, but there was something more satisfying about matching wits head to head than behind the scenes.

Realistically, Shinichi was sure that both he and Kaitou Kid knew that if Shinichi had really wanted to, the thief would be behind bars. But they had helped each other out enough that it was more interesting to Shinichi to stop the thief from stealing at heists rather than to permanently put the klepto behind bars. After all, Kid had helped him out with the black organization (not necessarily willingly), and Shinichi had helped put several snipers aiming to take Kid's life in jail several months ago.

If the thief had retired, then Shinichi might have to take a professional interest outside of heists: even if it was just to show Kid that he had him figured out. He was a detective after all; it was his job to get to the truth of the matter.

But the snipers had him worried. If there had been people after Kid's life once, it didn't necessarily mean that there weren't people out to kill him again. When Kid had stopped appearing, Shinichi had feared the worst.

"What are you thinking, Kudou?" Shinichi murmured to himself. That didn't matter now; that was a past scenario. Kid's assistant had appeared with far more intriguing details. What mattered now was figuring out how he was going to help solve this new puzzle that Kaitou Kid had somehow gotten tangled in.

While Shinichi wouldn't consider Kid a friend, per se, he did believe that there was something friendly in their well known rivalry. Despite his thievery, Shinichi respected the man. With a mind as brilliant as Kid's, it would be impossible for him not to. Even if Kid was a thief, helping show the truth in situations where someone else was the culprit was what he did. And in some strange way, Shinichi felt he owed Kid.

After the fall of the black organization, things had not panned out the way that Shinichi had expected them to. He had assumed that he would be able to find a way to return to a semblance of his former life. He would return to school, continue to solve cases, and he and Ran would end up together as a couple. Shinichi was not an idiot; he knew his time as Conan would have changed things, but it didn't necessarily make dealing with it any easier.

In all honestly, Shinichi had been surprised at how much his life _hadn't _changed.

Shinichi had returned to school, if only briefly. He'd practically missed half of his time in high-school. At first, he was afraid he'd have to repeat a grade, but he had managed to test out of having to do so. Instead, Shinichi was only in school for several months before he'd graduated. It was as though his time away had meant nothing. People had welcomed him back as though he'd never left.

Now attending Touto University, the classes which he had hoped to be stimulating and intriguing were not holding his attention as he'd expected. Somehow, after attending classes as an elementary student, one would think university classes would provide more of a challenge. Of course the content was harder, but there was something horribly less fun about them. Idly Shinichi wondered about creating university courses that incorporated more components of elementary pedagogy.

He was passing everything with flying colors, but he just couldn't connect to most of his classmates as he had in high school. Without soccer, there was little that he felt linked him to the other students. When he was younger he'd found his boon in playing soccer to amalgamate with kids his own age since most people (especially in his age group) didn't go around solving crimes. With soccer, he'd always been part of a team, part of a group. He may have stood out due to his skills, but he was still part of something.

Shinichi definitely missed his camaraderie with the Shounen-tantei-dan. Helping the Detective Boys Group with investigations had been a way for him to act as himself, and he'd enjoyed showing the kids how to become better detectives. Things had changed when "Conan" had left and Shinichi had returned. While there were times when he was still able to interact with the kids, it wasn't the same.

Nevertheless, there were still, thankfully, some people his age who enjoyed mysteries, like the detective club he'd joined at his university. Grudgingly realizing how much he'd enjoyed working with the Detective Boys Group, Shinichi decided to see how a college age detective group would work. Yet the detective club at Touto University had not been exactly what he was hoping for. There were six other members besides himself. Two of the male club members (one sophomore and one senior) were very enthusiastic about solving cases but were not very good at it. One of the girls in the group, a senior, was extremely incompetent, and Shinichi had a feeling she was more his fangirl than anything else. The only thing she ever did when discussing cases or when they were actually at a crime scene was to sit back and tell him how amazing he was.

There was one guy (a sophomore) who was decent, but he did his best to try and outsmart and outshine Shinichi that his input ended up making the cases unnecessarily distracting to solve. The last two were a duo of very smart and talented freshmen girls, but they spent more time looking to Shinichi's lead than to actually feel confident in voicing their own opinions. At their high-school, they had been in a detective group, and Shinichi felt they would be far more competent if they believed in themselves. Instead, they eagerly watched what he did, excitedly pointing out any clues they thought relevant, but always seemed too timid to voice their own thoughts. On the bright side, the two girls were Sherlockians who loved talking about Sherlock Holmes almost as much as he did.

While there was still a fair number of his fellow university students who were up to par with him academically, he had become too well known beforehand to find the same camaraderie he had had with his former classmates. It seemed that half of the people who were capable of keeping a conversation with him wanted to either try and one up him or to pick his brain about his not-so-secret investigation with the black organization.

The other half wanted him to come to parties and outings with them. While Shinichi had gone to said parties and outings, they weren't as enjoyable. Either someone was trying to set him up with their sister/friend/daughter/third cousin twice removed or trying to grab his attention if they were female themselves. Not to mention, many of the outings he went on were frequently cut short due to some sort of mishap. Either he would stumble upon a case or he would be called in order to help with police investigations. In fact, Shinichi found himself being invited to more gatherings involving police detectives than anything else since he seemed to spend so much time around them.

Since his return, the police had called upon Kudou Shinichi less due to the fact that "Sleeping Kogorou" was still around to help. However, not only was Shinichi getting called in to help with the Sleeping Kogorou cases and for the cases when they asked for Shinichi by name, but he was still helping solve more mysteries than what the police knew about.

On occasion, he was involved in F.B.I. and C.I.A. cases when requested. Those investigations were far more involved and tended to take longer. Usually he had a few heads to work with through those other branches, and it meant that he was never long without a stimulating case, but those cases tended to be few and far between.

Despite the fact that he was now solving more mysteries than ever, he wasn't getting credit for quite a number of them. Obviously his involvement with the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. cases remained (usually) unknown. But in addition to those cases, he was still acting as the brain power behind "Sleeping Kogorou." Ran had found out that he had been using a sleeping dart and his bowtie voice changer to solve crimes as "Sleeping Kogorou." With Conan's quite obvious absence, having Occhan return to the bumbling detective he had been would have raised too many questions. It only made sense to keep up some sort of pretense in order to help Occhan save face while also avoiding anyone making connections between who Conan had been. That piece of information was still relatively unknown to the populace.

Ran had gone to Agasa-hakase and received her own watch with built in sleeping gun and a voice changer in order to keep up appearances. She had discussed it with Shinichi, and Ran had begged him not to tell her father that he hadn't actually been solving the cases. Instead, Ran would call or text Shinichi and tell him about what was going on and he would tell her what to say – and she would solve it in her father's voice.

That had taken some time and practice as she had a harder time imitating her father's gruffer and more masculine inflections. When possible, she would place a speaker on her father and Shinichi would still act as the mouthpiece. The bowtie was still set up to the speaker, but depending on how far away they were meant that he was sometimes too far out of range to be the mouthpiece.

And then there was Ran. It seemed like so long ago since he'd confessed to her in London. Yet despite that, she had never given him a true response. He was sure that she had feelings for him. But instead of admitting it to him, she had told him it was hard to think of him that way as she kept seeing Conan, her cute little brother when she looked at him. She said she needed time.

They still hung out on a regular basis, and she seemed affectionate enough. From everything he had observed, she still loved him, and really just needed time.

So he had waited. And waited. Was still waiting.

It was one of the things that had returned to normal that he was hoping wouldn't. He and Ran were back to being best friends. Just friends. They were still very close. With Ran helping maintain the Sleeping Kogorou front, they shared more secrets than ever before. But the way that Ran had been acting around him had made in rather clear that she was having a hard time seeing him as Shinichi without also seeing Conan. Really, Shinichi couldn't blame her. It would be awkward to realize that the person who you fell in love with was actually masquerading as a little kid who you looked at like a little brother.

Shinichi knew that if he found out Ayumi was actually Ran in shrunken disguise, he would have a hard time blending the two personalities together. He viewed Haibara differently since he'd known the whole time that she wasn't really a little girl making Shinichi wonder how Ran would view him now if she'd known from the beginning that he'd been shrunk. Except Shinichi could not bring himself to regret deciding not to tell her from the beginning; he would not risk her life at any cost. She had waited for him, and now she asked for him to wait.

And he knew that he should wait longer for her because of all the waiting that Ran had done for him. She was there for him and he was there for her. They still talked all the time. She had waited for him to return: not for him to make a decision. Hattori Heiji, while he thought highly of Ran, had suggested that Shinichi move on. Ran seemed like she would never get over the fact that he had been Conan.

Even though he knew he should move on and let her go, Shinichi couldn't. He loved her. It wasn't like he could just stop doing that. As much as he admired Sherlock Holmes, the Heisei Holmes didn't want his "Irene Adler" to marry someone else, while he ended up alone.

Still, Shinichi didn't quite miss her the same way he had when he'd been Conan. Now that he was himself again, he still spent a good bit of time with her. The best part was that he was able to be open about what he did. He'd felt guilty for lying to her as Conan. It had been a barrier for him then, and because he lied, it was still a barrier for him now. The guilt he felt now, though, was a bit different. Instead of missing her, he found that there was someone else who he found himself missing more and more.

Instead of waking up and thinking of Ran, he spent time thinking of another voice whispering his name – his title.

After all, it wasn't that unusual that a sleuth become intrigued by a thief.

Ran had noticed, and seemed quite delighted by it. She called Kid his "man crush." Really, whose side was she on, anyway? Quite honestly, he felt hurt by her teasing. It was hard to read her intentions. Was she encouraging him to move onto someone else…?

But that was the thing. He didn't want to move on from Ran, especially not with a _guy_. It was more like he wanted to pull Kid further into his circle. Circle of friends, acquaintances, the like, he wasn't sure. Still, there was something he felt he should be able to put his finger on with this connection he felt to Kid.

It was stupid. He was sure that Kid didn't think of him as anything other than a rival to be outdone. Shinichi knew that he felt something different for the thief than he did for Ran. A pull? It definitely _wasn't_ romantic love. He loved Ran. Yet he did feel a fondness for Kid. An attraction wasn't the right word either as he didn't even _know _what the thief really looked like. Infatuated or intrigued seemed the best way to label it as he couldn't quite stomach the term "man crush." He didn't think of himself as obsessed, but he definitely held more than a passing curiosity in regards to the thief.

Cliché as it was, Kaitou Kid was the yin to his yang. They were alike in many regards and their differing skill sets complimented each other when it mattered. At times, Shinichi had wondered if their relationship wasn't like that of competitive brothers, always trying to outdo each other yet still supportive when necessary.

If Shinichi believed in long lost twins (with one of them being "evil"), he would say that Kid was his long lost evil_ish_ twin. But of course, that thought was absurd. There was no way he had a long lost twin brother.

Shinichi tried to justify it as an interest in someone he couldn't have a normal type of friendship with. Still, he supposed it was a safe "infatuation" to have. It wasn't like he would or could act on it. Yamaguchi Minami and Tama Minori, the two competent freshmen girls in his detective club, had actually compared Kaitou Kid as the "Irene Adler" to his Sherlock Holmes. They advocated that Adler was the only person who had slipped out of Holmes' grasp and was known for having masqueraded as a man and thus tricking Holmes into finding out his plans, rather like Kaitou Kid who occasionally dressed up as a woman or other disguises to figure out Shinichi's plans.

When Shinichi had brought up Arsène Lupin as a more likely character, both Minami-san and Minori-san insisted that Lupin was an unacceptable comparison since he had not been created by Doyle and was therefore not part of the true Sherlock Holmes world. In Lupin's world, there were things like radioactive "god-stones" and people who believed in the Fountain of Youth. It was too unrealistic for Holmes. Since Kid was realistic, he had to be more like one of their Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved characters, like Adler.

They also pointed out that Holmes had only ever been fond of Adler, and that while inferences could be read between the lines, they didn't think that Holmes ever had romantic feelings toward Adler. The two girls argued that the evidence was too inconclusive. Shinichi always thought of himself as a hardcore Sherlockian, but Minori-san and Minami-san took it to the extreme. In fact, the two timid girls had only ever disagreed with him on one topic: who the Holmes' counterparts would be if they were real people.

After hearing their insistence that Kid was not the Lupin to his Holmes, and having met a man who called himself Arsène Lupin III, Shinichi supposed that _that_ particular thief could be the "Lupin" to his "Holmes." Still, he decided not to tell Minori-san and Minami-san about it.

Shaking his head, thinking about comparing himself to Holmes, he was glad that he wasn't actually living out his life like completely like the literary detective. While he'd had to pretend to be dead for his safety for some time, he had still had contact with his friends and family. Not to mention, Holmes had ended up alone. Shinichi was not about to dismiss romantic interests as "distractions." He would never do anything foolish like that to hurt Ran.

Thinking about relating real people to fictional ones, Shinichi's mind drifted to Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin. Despite Minami-san and Minori-san's objections, Shinichi thought about correlating Kid as the "real life" Lupin. Doing so made him think about the fictional thief's romantic relationships and some of the issues that he had. Really, Shinichi hoped Kid wasn't living his life like Lupin and didn't have that many complications in his love life. Reflecting on it, Kid probably had a woman – or perhaps multiple women – to keep his mind occupied. The thief was extremely flirtatious after all. A random image of Kaitou Kid (looking a lot like Shinichi) being chased by an angry woman (looking a lot like Ran) who was infuriated over him flirting with others popped into his head. The thought made Shinichi give a half chuckle.

Perhaps that was the problem? Kid was having woman troubles? Marital issues? The thought of Kid being married somehow seemed wrong though. From what Shinichi could tell, the current Kid was too young. Idly he wondered if Kid's assistant was his grandfather. He could see it, considering Shinichi's deductions left him believing the original Kid – that is to say, the Kid who he'd first met and "dueled" with at Teitan Elementary School all those years ago – was the current Kid's father. It would make sense that it was a family business. After all, Kid had all but told him that his mother was the Phantom Lady.

Nonetheless, it made him wonder. Since Kid was known to flirt with women, it wasn't too farfetched to believe his regular, everyday persona likewise flirted with women. With his suave voice, it would definitely make other men jealous. Filing this thought away for later, Shinichi turned over in bed.

Whatever the case was, Shinichi would investigate the matter. He would make a few phone calls to see if his initial gut reaction to what might be going on was true or not. He really hoped it wasn't a love triangle gone wrong with some raving jealous lunatic. Those never ended well.

Shinichi grunted in disgust at his own thoughts and turned in his bed again, trying to concentrate on identifying the bird calls in order to distract him from his current thoughts.

A single bird call caught his ear.

_Tzruuu, tzrutzrutzrutzru tzru tzruu. Tzrutzrutzrutzru tzruuuu._ Shinichi's eyes darted opened, intrigued at the bird call. It was one he recognized as a Yellow Bunting, but it was strange to hear it in Tokyo this time of year as the birds were usually found at a higher level altitude. It was, however, their mating season, and Shinichi felt a strange sense of loneliness for the bird. It wasn't uncommon for the birds to occasionally travel through Tokyo, but the bird was unlikely to find another of its kind in this part of Beika-chou.

Shinichi berated himself, feeling strangely put-out as he found himself relating to the lonely bird far from home. Eyes darting toward the clock, he knew that Ran would be waking up soon for an early morning karate practice at her university. While being back in his regular sized body was wonderful, there were many times he missed living with Ran. For instance, Ran, even though she would have been leaving early, would have made sure to have a warm breakfast and an even warmer smile ready for him before she left.

Heart aching, Shinichi knew why he did his best not to dwell on Ran. Wracking his brain for less lonely thoughts, something else he hoped to be able to focus on and sort out, he idly wondered how Kid was doing.

* * *

Some miles away in another part of Tokyo, Kuroba Kaito's eyelids fluttered opened. He tried to stretch and roll over before he realized that he wasn't at his house, and that the bright light streaming in through the window would make it difficult to go back to sleep. Instead he grunted and threw his arm over his eyes, wishing for the umpteenth time that he was home, sleeping in his own bed.

Really, the beds in jail cells were placed in just the right way so that the sunlight would wake up the prisoners as the sun rose.

As he grumbled to himself, he heard a soft fluttering sound at the window. Slightly interested, he wondered if it was one of his doves. Jii had sent his doves a few times with messages that he had been able to read through the window. The print was small enough on the attached messages that it was hard to see from afar and encoded in such a way that it would be difficult for others to know who it was meant for, but sending doves to his window too often would definitely attract attention. Still, he longed for information from his friends.

Squinting to allow his eyes to adjust to the light, he looked out the barred window. For a moment he wondered if Jii had trained another bird to fly messages as it wasn't a dove; it was a Yellow Bunting. With a cursory glance outside his cell window, he flipped over to see if the bird had a message for him. Sadly, it just seemed to be a normal Yellow Bunting coming to perch on his window cell. Kaito chuckled to himself as he wondered if the bird could be considered a "jail bird." Losing interest, Kaito turned back over and put his pillow over his head for good measure, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep before the day began.

**Continued in Chapter 3: Naming the Suspect…**

Sorry that it took so long to post this chapter. I kept going back to make sure I put in little clues here and there for things to come later, and this chapter I had to revamp a bunch of times to make sure everything flowed for later chapters.

A few questions for avid fanfic readers and anime/manga enthusiasts. Does anyone know if the Kaitou Kid manga specifically mentions that Pandora has to be held up to the full moon to see the hidden jewel? From what I have found, it's never mentioned in the manga. In fact, there are many times in the manga where Kid holds up jewels to the moon on non full nights. The only place I've seen it mentioned that it has to be a full moon is in the description about the anime on websites like gogoanime or the like. Suzuki Jirokichi mentions that Kid always seems to fly away with the full moon at his back, but that is the only reference in either the Detective Conan or Magic Kaito manga where I have been able to find the connection between the full moon and Kid.

Also, does anyone know if Kid actually ever calls Hakuba, "Tantei-san?" I've never heard him say that in the anime adaptations or found it in the Magic Kaito manga. He just seems to call him Hakuba. Speaking on names, I've seen people in fanfics say Kid calls Conan "Tantei-kun" and Shinichi, "Meitantei," but I know that isn't true as Kid has called Conan, "Meitantei" multiple times in the manga. Additionally, I've never seen Kid and Hattori interact, so I've never seen/heard Kid call him, "Tantei-han" as many people write in fanfics. Is this just a fanfic thing or does anyone have evidence of it in the anime/manga series?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! ~ Jelp


	3. Chapter 3: Naming the Suspect

**Meitantei**

**Chapter 3: Naming the Suspect**

After being unable to get back to sleep, Shinichi realized his mind wouldn't settle until he delved into this latest mystery. Within a half hour he'd already searched the newspaper cover to cover, checked his phone's newsfeed, and browsed multiple channels to see if the news might have anything that jumped out at him but found nothing that seemed related to Kaitou Kid. He had, however, given Megure-keibu a rather early morning call to explain his deduction of the suspect in a double homicide he'd deduced from the paper. Two cups of coffee later, and a grateful return phone call from the keibu explaining his deduction had landed them their suspect, Shinichi found himself in the library with his laptop booted and ready to go. He sat and pondered for a while.

The question was: where to start searching?

Like Holmes, when Shinichi was thinking, he needed time to sit and go over his thoughts. After narrowing down a possible time frame for when Kaitou Kid might have gotten into trouble, he crossed out any of the cases that he had already had a hand in solving – either on his own or aiding Ran in her attempts to keep up the Sleeping Kogorou front.

Shinichi had sorted through the remaining number of cases, shuffling through them like a magician did with a deck of cards. He'd discarded the ones where the perpetrators were over twenty-five. He was fairly certain that the man behind the monocle was closer to his age. And as he was unable to attend the heist himself, it was very likely he wasn't _able _to show up, meaning he was likely detained somehow. That means that the suspect would currently be in jail.

After narrowing it down to cases where the supposed culprit was under twenty-five and had not made bail, Shinichi began to look at the various motives, other people involved, and any other pertinent details of crimes that had occurred between two months and one week prior – the time frame for when Kid had disappeared and the assistant had appeared.

When all was said and done, he'd finally focused on one case. It involved a minor (the name was not revealed due to the suspect's age) who had initially been arrested for theft and _possibly_ murder. The follow up article said that there were indications that it could have been manslaughter due to a prank gone wrong.

As a big jewel was involved, the mention of a prank, and the person being within the right time frame of when Kid's heists had ceased, Shinichi had a good feeling this could be the case Kaitou Kid had been incarcerated for.

The few newspaper articles he'd read led him to make a few conclusions as to what might be going on.

The case information ran as thus: the suspect in question had gone to one Motoyama Kenji's home and subsequent bird sanctuary. Motoyama-san was a man who owned and bred birds and was known for providing birds to bird lovers, aspiring magicians who needed doves or other birds for their shows, and ornithologists. The death of Motoyama-san took place in the bird sanctuary where an unexplained incident caused his death. However, as the suspect responsible for causing the possible accidental incident was also found to have a large family jewel in his possession, police suspected malicious intent as the suspected thief had a ticket to leave for France that day.

If Shinichi remembered correctly, during that particular time period, an international conference was being held in France to discuss thieves, Kaitou Kid being one of them.

The ticket to France made sense; Shinichi wouldn't put it past Kid to show up at a conference where he was the main topic. Also, the jewel had initially caught his attention as Kid could have been scouting out his next heist piece. However, the more he read over it, the more it seemed that if the suspect _was _Kid, it had to have been a frame job. After all, Kid wouldn't have had the jewel on his person, especially not without announcing his intentions to steal it.

Shinichi ran over what little details the newspaper articles provided for the case again and again, grateful when the clock finally told him that it was a decent enough hour to start making a few phone calls.

His first phone call resulted in a pleasant female voice letting him know that he had reached Lawyer Kisaki Eri's secretary.

"Good morning, Kuriyama-san. Kudou Shinichi here," Shinichi greeted Kisaki-san's secretary cordially.

"Ah! Kudou-kun! How can I help you? If you're looking for Ran-san, she isn't here yet. She's planning on meeting her mom at the cafe for lunch," Kuriyama Midori said happily.

"No, no. I'm not calling in regards to Ran," Shinichi said, noting that Ran would be meeting up with her mother for lunch. "Actually, I'm calling to see whether or not Kisaki-san happened to take the case of the young man who was accused of murdering Motoyama Kenji-san. The newspaper article mentioned her name, but not whether or not she had taken the case," Shinichi explained.

"You know I'm not supposed to give out that type of information. It's classified! I'll have to transfer you to her. She can tell you herself," Kuriyama-san joked, transferring him.

Shinichi waited, doing his best to dispel the strange feel of nervousness he had whenever he spoke with Kisaki Eri. He was grateful that Ran had decided to keep the fact that he had once been Conan from her mother. There was something about Ran's mother that frequently put him in a swivet. Taking a deep breath, he hoped it would help keep him from feeling so on edge.

"Shinichi-kun," Kisaki-san's voice came over the phone. "What can I help you with?"

Shinichi explained that he was looking into Motoyama-san's death and had wondered if Kisaki-san had taken the suspect as her client.

"I have, but I must say that things don't look too good for the poor boy," Kisaki-san admitted. A strange feeling went through Shinichi's chest. He had never known Kisaki-san to lose a case.

"How so?"

"His fingerprints were found on the stolen jewel which was discovered amongst his things. Not only is he the only person to not have an alibi for the crime, there is a video implicating that he was the one who murdered Motoyama-san," Kisaki-san explained. It definitely didn't sound like a winning case for sure. Then again, if the video only _implicated_ that he had committed the crime, it meant that it didn't capture it fully.

"But you don't think he did it?" Shinichi asked.

"Kuroba-kun is known for his pranks, so the manner in which Motoyama-san died seems more along the lines of a prank gone wrong – manslaughter not murder. Yet Kuroba-kun is insisting there was no prank…Anyway, as for the stolen jewel, it appears that he had been showing a great deal of interest in learning more about it. The jewel had been cleaned earlier that day, and the only set of fingerprints were Kuroba-kun's. The jewel was found in Kuroba-kun's things. He also had a plane ticket to leave later that day. The prosecution is trying to push for murder due to this fact. Kuroba-kun insists that he didn't steal the jewel and that the plane ticket was to go sightseeing."

Kuroba...Kuroba...why did that name sound so familiar? Shinichi jotted the name down in his detective notebook, glad that he wouldn't have to fish for the name.

"In other words, it's possible that someone planted it."

"Yes, but proving that is another story. Still, I have a gut feeling that he didn't do it."

"Hmm. Things don't sound too good. Is there any way you can arrange a meeting with Kuroba-kun so I can speak with him?"

"Don't trust my findings?" Kisaki-san asked, sounding a little hurt.

"Ah – no, it's just-"

"No, no. I understand. If I were you, I would be checking every fact too. What a brat you are!" Kisaki-san said, but nut unkindly. "You're assuming that I am going to let you help me with my client case. Let me guess, Yukiko-chan put you up to this?" Kisaki-san sighed.

"Uh, what?" Shinichi asked.

"Yukiko-chan asked you to look into her sensei son's plight, didn't she?" Kisaki-san asked, sounding less sure.

"Well, something like that," Shinichi said evasively, not wanting to give too much away, while feeling slightly confused. It wasn't like he could explain that he thought her client was Kaitou Kid. But what did Kisaki-san mean by his mother's sensei's son?

Kisaki-san made a non-committal noise at his non-admission. Shinichi waited for a moment, wondering if she planned to add anything more as she wasn't hanging up yet either. The only thing left to discuss was that she said she would arrange a meeting.

"When will I be able to speak with him?" Shinichi pressed when Kisaki-san didn't say anything.

"As you know, under Article 111, Paragraph 1 of the Law Concerning the Treatment of Inmates, you fall under the category of people who would be allowed to visit as you are, "a support for civil litigations." You could speak with him on your own," Kisaki-san mentioned.

"Yes, but if you already have the paperwork filed, it's far more convenient to do so in conjunction with your visit," Shinichi said.

"Too true. I was planning on meeting with him today after my lunch break. Actually, I'll be meeting with Ran today for lunch. Would you like to join us?" Kisaki-san invited, slowly. Shinichi wondered if she had been debating with herself over inviting him. As Conan, he had heard her blatantly say that she would rather that Ran not end up with a childhood friend. When they were younger, Ran had followed him on some harebrained adventures. He could understand that Ran's mother might be worried about what Shinichi would drag Ran into. But he'd grown-up a lot since then – twice, in fact!

Thinking back on it, Shinichi also knew that when Kisaki-san had said to Ran that she'd rather her daughter not end up with a childhood friend, she had been very angry at Occhan at the time. It seemed more of a reflection on Occhan than Shinichi. Shinichi was sure she thought highly of his analytical skills, and perhaps hoped to have his help on the case despite her bantering. Meeting for lunch was a good idea for them to discuss the case.

Of course, Kisaki-san had to be thinking of the fact that he would be interacting with Ran as she mentioned her daughter by name. Maybe she was trying to show her support that she approved of them being together by inviting him along?

"I would love to," Shinichi said.

"We'll be meeting at Café Royal at noon," Kisaki-san informed him.

"I'll meet you there."

"Good. I will send word to Kuroba-kun to notify him that you will be coming in my place."

"Ah, actually, would you do me a favor? Would you not tell him my name? Just that someone will be meeting him in your place? I want to surprise him."

"Surprise him?"

"It's an inside joke. He'll understand when he sees me."

"Hmm, I suppose I can."

Shinichi wanted to gauge Kuroba-kun's reaction to his presence. How surprised, and/or pleased he was would help Shinichi sort out which of his theories he would follow.

Shinichi ended the call with Kisaki-san and immediately dialed another number.

"Shin-chan~!"

"Hello, Kaa-san," Shinichi said in monotone. Somehow speaking to his mother had the effect of giving him an instantaneous headache. Shinichi rubbed at his temples, trying to dispel it.

"Mou, Shin-chan. That's no way to greet your lovely mother!" Kudou Yukiko whined at her son. Even thousands of miles away, Shinichi could picture her reaction to his unenthusiasm with detailed clarity.

"Sorry, Kaa-san," Shinichi apologized, not sorry at all. "I'm in the middle of an investigation right now. I wondered if you could give me some background information," Shinichi said.

"Shin-chan's calling _me_ for information?" Yukiko chirped happily. "It's so exciting! What do you need, sweetheart?"

Shinichi explained the information he had found out from Kisaki-san so far. Of course, he'd left out the reason he was interested in the case was that Kaitou Kid's assistant had told him to look into it, but his mother had been most forthcoming with information. He now knew he was looking into information on one Kuroba Kaito. Apparently, Kisaki-san had already called and spoke with his father who, according to his mother, would have called him later to ask him to look into the case. His mother spent a good five minutes squealing how proud she was of her son to have figured out that his father wanted him to look into the case since his father was too busy with an upcoming book deadline.

"Hmm, it sounds like Kaito-chan is in a tough situation," Yukiko said, sadly. "It's such a shame! He's one of the most handsome and charming young men I've ever met!"

The shameless school-girl-like giggle did not help Shinichi's growing headache. Shinichi listened to the few details his mother gave him of how Kaito had given her a rose, even if he had foolishly called her oba-san. Though quite frankly, in Shinichi's opinion, it meant that Kuroba Kaito was quite capable of telling ages accurately: not that Shinichi would tell his mother that.

"Thanks, Kaa-san," Shinichi said, looking at the time on his watch. He'd been surprised at how long the phone call had been going on. "I need to do a few things before I meet up with Kisaki-san to discuss Kuroba-kun's case."

"Ne, Shin-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Would you mind going to check on Chiakage-chan for me? I'm sure with her son in this situation, she'd love to have another young boy-" _he was _not_ a young boy! And hadn't been for, er, a year!_ "-to speak with about the case."

"A-ah. Sure."

Shinichi wrote down the address from his mother, making a few mental notes to check on the background of Kuroba Toichi and Kuroba Chiakage. From what Kaitou Kid had implied during the only heist he'd returned items, the Ryouma Treasure case, Kuroba Chiakage was likely the Phantom Lady. Interesting.

"I know you'll clear Kaito-chan's name! Bye, Shin-chan!"

"Bye," Shinichi said as he hung up the phone.

Taking the information his mother had given him, Shinichi went to the upper shelves of the library where his father kept old case material. Instead of pulling out the file on Kaitou Kid, Shinichi pulled out the folder on Kuroba Toichi. Knowing he'd heard/seen the name before, and not just in the catalogue of his father's cases, Shinichi rummaged through the contents with vigor.

The pictures and information from the magician's tragic death had clearly been looked through many times. Shinichi frowned. It definitely seemed like an accident, but with the way it was handled, his father must have felt it had been a murder. Really, there wasn't much to go by to indicate that there was foul play, other than a gut instinct. However, it was clear by the way that the newspaper clippings edges were smudged and softer, wrinkled even, that his father had looked over the details multiple times. The fact that there were notes dating from various years indicated it was a case that his father had revisited multiple times. His father didn't believe that Kuroba Toichi had died due to malfunctioning equipment, but it seemed even his father was unable to find anything to prove otherwise.

Shinichi held up the newspaper clipping of the magician, finding himself wondering why he seemed familiar. Had he gone to the man's shows before? Shinichi felt for sure that he had met this man. There was something strangely familiar, as though the man also reminded him of someone else.

Grabbing the file, Shinichi took it down to the desk in the library. He did a quick YouTube search for any of Kuroba Toichi's magic shows to see if anything sparked in his memory.

The first thing that he noticed was the voice. The haunting, haughty, teasing quality of the voice brought back childhood memories of a night sneaking into a dark library, easy tricks for him to see through, and a riddle for Shinichi to work out. Shinichi could have smacked himself. Of course the reason this man looked familiar was due to the fact that he _had_ met him before. Hadn't he just been thinking to himself that very morning that the current Kid was likely the original Kid's son? Like father, like son.

If that were the case, Kaitou Kid – the former and the younger – wouldn't do things in halves. They both enjoyed having rivals. How could he have forgotten about the case where he'd met the mysterious man in the Teitan Elementary School library? He'd met this man before, and if he was very much mistaken, it was likely Shinichi's father knew that Kaitou Kid and Kuroba Toichi had been one in the same.

Thinking back on it, his father had taken him to see Kuroba Toichi's shows in person before. His father had taken him back to meet him after the performance, and while neither had said much, there had been something challenging in the way the two of them had acted. It seemed that the original Kid also liked having detectives to challenge. After all, Kuroba Toichi had made up such a mysterious ghost story that had enticed his younger self to come to his elementary school in the middle of the night, sparking an intense curiosity in him.

_ "You're my big brother."_

If Kuroba Toichi had called him his big brother, did that mean he was the current Kid's uncle? Shinichi shook his head incredulously at the implications of _that_ thought, thinking of his momentary blunder and another of his favorite Holmes' quotes: "I made a blunder, my dear Watson – which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think."

Shinichi had known that there was an eight year gap where Kid had stopped stealing. Linking the time the heists had stopped with Kuroba Toichi's death along with Kuroba Kaito becoming old enough to be physically capable of handling the heists, it became all the move obvious that Kuroba Kaito was the current Kaitou Kid while Kuroba Toichi had been the original Kaitou Kid.

Browsing through a few more YouTube videos, he caught sight of an assistant. Shinichi paused the clip, looking at a slightly younger face of the assistant who had been masquerading as Kid the past week. A few simple searches later, he found that the man's name was Konosuke Jii.

Learning that the man owned the billiards hall, "Blue Parrot" somehow seemed fitting. Remembering the strange case he had solved there, it seemed appropriate that Kid would somehow be connected to that particular case.

Smirking to himself, Shinichi found the assistant's address and wrote a quick note to the man, putting down the following:

_ Will take the case. Following payment required: new tie (silk – any color but pink), two pairs of dress shoes (size 29 – one black, one brown), a pair of slacks (size 73, black), and a dress shirt (size MA, blue)._

Really, giving the assistant his dry cleaning bill was too easy – he wanted replacements for what had been ruined. He ought to make him work a little harder for what he'd put Shinichi through at his heists. Writing the address of the Blue Parrot on it, Shinichi sealed the envelope. With that finished, he mentally went over the information he had learned that morning.

As all these pieces linked together, a bubbling excitement built in his chest. The excitement contrasted quite horribly with the subsequent weight that had settled in his stomach as he remembered the reason he had begun looking into Kuroba Kaito in the first place. Shinichi frowned. While something the assistant said made him believe that Kuroba was not responsible for this crime, the thought of actually completely clearing the person who Shinichi was now almost positive was the current Kaitou Kid seemed unlikely.

But Shinichi was never one to back down from a challenge.

**Continued in Chapter 4: The Other Side of Things…**

* * *

The quote I used comes from the Sherlock Holmes' short story _Silver Blaze_: "Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson – which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think."

I guesstimated at Shinichi's shoe size based on his height. 29 is the Japanese shoe size for European 45 and U.S. size 10 ½. I found that a person who is 174cm tall (on average) wears a European 44/45 and U.S. size 10/10 ½. Since he was 174cm tall when he was 16-17, I went with the larger size on the basis that he might have grown a little taller as he got older. For his pants and shirt size, I checked with the Japanese Industrial Standards sizes based roughly on his height.

Writing Kisaki and Shinichi's interactions was interesting. In the manga, it seems Shinichi is fearful of Kisaki, yet the live action series and movies have Kisaki actively encouraging Shinichi to confess/spend time/buy girly thing (red panties even!) for Ran. Went more with how the manga portrays their relationship, but I do think Kisaki likes Shinichi in the manga, so it's hard to tell. As an FYI: most of the time Conan refers to Kisaki as Kisaki-san, though he does call her Kisaki-sensei on occasion. I stuck with Kisaki-san as he calls her that more frequently.

For those of you who don't know, the Blue Parrot is the billiards hall that Jii owns. It is mentioned in Magic Kaito Volume 2 Chapter 7 and Detective Conan chapters 853-855.

In Japan, minors are considered people who are nineteen and younger. In some cases, minors' names can be released to the public in situations of murder, but not always depending on the circumstances. On a side note, the legal smoking and drinking age in Japan is twenty. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ~ Jelp


	4. Chapter 4: The Other Side of Things

Thank you to everyone who has read/reviewed so far. You guys are awesome!

A few people have wondered about what's going on with Kaito. This chapter explores the other part of the justice system we don't usually see in Detective Conan. See end author's notes for more details. Enjoy!

**Meitantei**

**Chapter 4: The Other Side of Things**

Kuroba Kaito felt listless as he went about his daily life at the detention center. He hadn't been there very long, but he was already beginning to feel the suffocation of the place. Being cooped up was not something he had ever enjoyed, and there was little to keep his mind occupied. Not for the first time had he thought about breaking out of the detention center. He had decided against it as he didn't want to blemish the Kuroba name. Not that he couldn't do it; with the lack of mental stimulation, he'd already memorized the guards' schedules, found the little areas that needed improvement in terms of constant supervision, and would be able to easily scale the walls while creating a rather spectacular distraction.

Not to mention he was secretly enjoying watching the guards scratch their heads as their things would somehow end up in different locations: keys in different pockets, watches on the opposite wrist – little things.

Sadly, Kaito had learned early on that a guard's hat mysteriously ending up on top of the flagpole with no trace of who put it there got everyone yelled out and their free time cut.

Repeatedly he had to remind himself that he didn't want to make anyone suspicious of him being Kid. But Kid was not someone who dealt well with being in a cage.

A bail bondsman service had spoken with him about putting up the money for bail, but Kaito had declined. His mother had said that they could borrow the money to post his bail, and that they would get it back once he showed up for trial, but Kaito couldn't stomach the thought. It was too much money. He didn't want to borrow it from the service. He'd heard too many stories about those places having underhanded rates and hidden agendas. Until his name was cleared, he had little to do other than pray and hope that his lawyer would find the evidence to acquit him quickly.

While he knew he was innocent of this crime, even with advocates stating that he was a person of good character, it had been one of the hardest times of his life.

After he had been arrested, he'd been taken to a daiyo kangoku. Kaito had been expecting the police inspectors involved in his case to be the same ones interrogating him, but he couldn't believe the change in personality between their questions at the crime scene and their behavior as they verbally abused him and did everything in their power to make him confess to a crime he had not committed.

Sure Kaito had seen plenty of police dramas and knew about the harshness of the interrogations. He also knew that the police were infamous for forcing confessions when they were sure they had their suspect. But Kaito was innocent. They wouldn't treat _him_ like that.

He was wrong.

Kaito had half expected some of the members of division one he knew – Chiba, Takagi, Satou, Shiratori, or Megure to be on the scene. He knew these police detectives from their connections with past Kid heists when it had overlapped with murder investigations. He obviously knew some of the investigators from division two and three who worked together because of his heists. But unfortunately for him, there hadn't been a truly friendly or familiar face amongst his questioners.

He'd heard horror stories about people's experiences in daiyo kangoku facilities before, but he'd never quite understood just how bad those could be. The interrogation of the people accusing him of murder and theft had been harsh and demanding. Kaito hadn't said anything other than what he'd told the police detectives who had arrived at the scene. His story never changed, but they kept pressing him into confessing. The first few days it had mostly been annoying. But after nearly two weeks of constant questioning and harsh demands, it had begun to get to him. He was lucky to have been saved by Nakamori-keibu storming in and demanding that he be properly charged and transferred to a detention center.

Kaito never wanted to go through that experience again. Under the law he was allowed to be held for an interview (more like interrogation) in the daiyo kangoku for up to seventy two hours without a formal charge. After that period, a judge had agreed to extend his stay for another ten days. When Kaito did not change his response after the first ten days, the judge had agreed to extend his stay for yet another ten days.

Thankfully, Kaito had only had to endure one day into the second extension as Nakamori-keibu had arrived and forced them to properly process Kaito's charge. Once an official charge had been made, he'd been sent to the detention center.

The only thing he had to endure for this was Nakamori-keibu yelling at him for not telling the prosecutors to contact him sooner. He would never have believed he'd ever be so glad to have the keibu yell at him. It was a strangely welcoming and familiar greeting.

If he were ever incarcerated as Kaitou Kid, he was sure that Nakamori-keibu would not be nearly as helpful in moving his case along. The thought of going through that process again, knowing that he would not have anyone on his side was more than a little unsettling.

For two weeks he'd been held in the daiyo kangoku without a formal charge. When he was finally transferred, he'd been charged with third degree murder. The case was being treated as a homicide rather than manslaughter due to his supposed theft. Still, he supposed he'd rather it be treated like a homicide rather than a planned murder, but he was _innocent_!

He was charged with murdering Motoyama Kenji the owner of the bird sanctuary where Kaito bought his doves. The thing was, Kaito was in the room nearby when it had happened, but he hadn't even heard anything. Everyone else had an alibi. A jewel that he had not stolen had ended up in his bag with his fingerprints on it. A video showed Motoyama-san's death and it seemed that there was a prank which resulted in his death. And okay, so Kaito was the only one nearby who could have done it at first glance – _at first glance_. It also didn't help that he'd had a plane ticket to leave the country. Due to these facts, the police officers had been trying to force him to admitting that he had killed Motoyama-san. Except, he hadn't.

Once he was out of the daiyo kangoku and processed in the detention center as a remand prisoner (a prisoner who was awaiting trial without being able to pay his bail), he had finally been able to accept visitors. His mother had been worried to say the least. She'd had practically no information in regards to why he had been arrested. As he had been planning a trip right after visiting Motoyama-san for a period of several weeks, she hadn't realized anything had happened. (Part of the reason the police also felt he was suspicious was due to the fact that he had a plane ticket headed to France the next day and Kaito hadn't been entirely forthcoming as to why he was going.)

Since Kaito had been unable to call anyone while in the daiyo kangoku, and since he didn't want the police to be the ones to contact Jii, he hadn't let them know about his situation. He had mentioned that he knew Nakamori Ginzo, but Kaito knew that Nakamori-keibu had left Japan to go to an international Kaitou Kid conference in France. After all, Kaito had been planning on making a surprise appearance as Kaitou Kid at the conference but that plan had been ruined. Thankfully someone had mentioned to Nakamori-keibu upon his return that there was someone in holding who had said he'd known him, but until then, Kaito had been on his own. As a minor the police force had attempted to contact his mother oversees, but they hadn't been able to get in contact with her. Thankfully, once he'd been allowed to see Jii, his dutiful friend had contacted his mother through other means.

Not that Kaito wanted her involved. He didn't want to give the police any chance to have his mother, the former Phantom Lady, nor Jii, the former, if very temporary, Kaitou Kid connected to him in case things turned out for the worse. The police had searched his home, but since they had not accused him of being Kaitou Kid, Kaito knew they hadn't found his father's secret room. Thankfully!

The accusations had been a constant bombardment against his character, and he never would have thought he'd be thankful to go to a detention facility. Yet after the daiyo kangoku, it was definitely a better change. For starters, he wasn't being interrogated so harshly.

Life in the detention facility wasn't as bad for him as others. Since he was still awaiting trial he did not need to wear the horrible inmate uniform. He was also not forced to do any type of manual labor, but he had purposefully offered to help do something because otherwise he was bored out of his mind. If he were convicted, that would all change.

One of the surprising "comforts" of the facility was that he had his own TV and radio in his solitary cell, even if the programs that he was allowed to watch were limited. It was therefore a pleasant surprise that they had been airing the recent Kaitou Kid heists. Even though he knew many news broadcasts aired the heists live, it was still rather interesting to hear people cheering for Kaitou Kid from their jail cells. He would have thought that that type of rowdy behavior would have made the guards angry. Yet, despite their usually harsh manners, the guards seemed to enjoy the heists too.

Kaito would much rather be orchestrating the heist than watch Jii doing them on his own. It made Kaito worry about him. He'd only been able to receive messages via doves. Jii had managed to send a coded message explaining that he would be continuing Kid's work in order to "prove" that he and Kid weren't one in the same. Although Kaito understood the reasons behind Jii's actions, he still worried about him, especially after the last two heists.

At one heist, Hakuba Saguru had managed to put Jii in handcuffs. It made Kaito exasperated just thinking about it. Hadn't Hakuba learned that handcuffs were no match for Kaitou Kid – or any escape artist for that matter? Still, Hakuba had probably assumed (rightfully so) that the Kid doing the most recent heists wasn't the real Kid. Hakuba had already come to visit Kaito to show his disgust about Kaito being caught for a murder he hadn't committed. Hakuba seemed to take it personally that someone else had managed to get him behind bars. Knowing Hakuba, he hadn't taken Jii's abilities seriously. Hakuba could be so observant but overlook the blaringly obvious at times.

But last night's heist…_that_ had Kaito extremely worried.

The news had reported that Kaitou Kid had not managed to make off with the jewel and Kudou Shinichi had personally wrestled it from his person. The previous heists Jii had orchestrated, Kudou and Hakuba respectively had managed to stop Jii from taking the jewels, but "wrestling" him for it made Kaito quite worried. Kicking a soccer ball at Kid would sound about right, or perhaps tricking him in some way. Somehow "wrestling" for it sounded too...off.

It sounded like Jii was having a difficult time dealing with Hakuba and especially Kudou Shinichi. Not that he could blame Jii. He was fairly certain that there were times when the Heisei Holmes allowed him to "run away" as long as he returned the jewel. Not for the first time was he grateful that Meitantei-kun didn't shoot him with his tranquilizer watch if he felt the jewel would be returned. That was one of the biggest differences between Hakuba and Kudou-kun. Hakuba wanted to put Kaito behind bars. Kudou-kun wanted to make sure that the jewels weren't stolen. Kudou-kun seemed to realize that there was a greater meaning behind why he did what he did. Kaito had no delusions that if Kudou-kun felt it would serve a greater purpose then he'd try harder to put him in jail. But Kudou-kun was more concerned about stopping the theft rather than putting him behind bars. Hakuba, on the other hand, would rather stop him completely.

Kaito found it ironic that Hakuba, who was known for asking criminals, "Why did you commit the crime?" didn't seem to grasp that there were other motives behind why Kaito did what he did. Kudou-kun got that. He didn't like that Kaito stole, but there were times where he could have captured Kid but let him go.

It was more a challenge than a chase. As long as he returned the jewel, the detective didn't impeded his getaway, leaving them to match wits another day.

After all, Kudou-kun had made it well known that he preferred putting murderers behind bars rather than thieves.

Kaito sighed. He knew the detective's track record with solving impossible crimes was impressive. The Heisei Holmes had a tendency to actually be there when the crime happened and skillfully maneuver the criminal into revealing him or herself. It wasn't like Kaito to have such bad luck. Usually his luck would have extended to Kudou-kun being there to figure out who had really killed Motoyama-san. However, with the way things were going, his bad luck might extend to having Kudou-kun catch Jii. He knew that it couldn't have happened at the heist the night before as it would have been all over the news. Yet if things kept going the way they were, it might not be too long…

Kaito hoped that Jii would be able to get a message to him in some way to let him know that he was okay.

Not being able to access the internet to find information meant that utter boredom was starting to get to him. But the real kicker wasn't the boredom. It wasn't even the memory of the way the officers had treated him.

No, there was definitely one thing above all others that made being in prison the hardest experience of Kaito's life.

Kaito could stand the irate officers. Yes, they're grumpy and degrading manners were annoying, but Kaito could dish out his own annoyances in waves. He could take as much as he got. He could even find ways to keep himself from being entirely bored when he wanted to. In some ways, he was thrilled with the thought of knowing the inner workings of a prison. It made him feel like Harry Houdini in a lot of ways.

No, it was the meals they served at this place. He couldn't stand dealing with _that_ type of food _every _day. Day in and day out seeing so many f-fish all in one place: that was _torturous_!

His trial couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

Shinichi was unsurprised to see Ran already sitting at a booth through the Royal Café's window, checking her watch. He was running a little late as he'd stopped to mail his letter to Kid's assistant with his list of "demands."

"Ah, mom said you'd be coming," Ran said, greeting Shinichi as he entered the cafe. Ran smiled warmly at him, smiled at him in the same way she had ever since she'd forgiven him for lying to her about him being Conan: friendly but reserved. Shinichi smiled back and slid into the booth seat opposite from Ran. The waitress quickly came to take his order – coffee – while bowing politely as she placed Ran's order (tea) in front of her.

For a moment his thoughts were distracted as he looked after the waitress, taking in her appearance.

"She's very pretty," Ran said without jealousy or malice. Shinichi turned to look at his childhood friend, confused for a brief moment before realizing Ran thought he was checking the waitress out. He laughed a little.

"Ah, no, that's not why I was looking at her. The waitress has recently been through a difficult break-up."

"Eh? How can you tell?"

"Look at her. She's obviously been working here for some time as she's clearly known to some of whom I suspect to be regular customers," Shinichi said, nodding as the woman spoke quite amicably with some of the other patrons. "However, if you look at her uniform, you can tell that it's a bit loose on her, indicating that's she's lost enough weight in a short period of time not to have gotten a smaller sized uniform, most likely in the past two weeks. All the other waitresses' outfits fit them much better, meaning that they're tailored to each waitress individually. The shape matches her form implying that it was at one time fitted for her frame, the looseness of it indicates weight loss. Even though she does not have a perm, her hair is rather dry and brittle looking. The scent of her shampoo is Shiseido Tsubaki. This means she is conscious of the health of her hair. The shampoo should prevent the type of damage her hair has from environmental factors, meaning that the deteriorating health of her hair has been dietary. She has not been eating properly and taking in the right amount of nutrition necessary to give her hair its usual shine."

"First of all, _did you sniff her hair?_ Secondly, how do _you_ know what Shiseido Tsubaki smells like? Not to mention, how do you know her hair is usually shiny?" Ran asked, crossing her arms.

"Ah, when she bent over to place down your tea I could smell the scent of her shampoo. It's known for smelling like camellia flowers. In the picture on the wall, she was the employee of the month a month and a half ago. You can clearly see how she filled her uniform more aptly and how her hair has a greater bounce and shine. Now, with her loss of weight and lack of nutrient intake, it's clear that she's not actively trying to lose weight by any healthy means. It could be due to anorexia or bulimia as both methods for losing weight leave similar signs of malnutrition. Yet I don't think that it's due to intent to lose weight but rather a loss of appetite. The way that she posed both playfully and provocatively for her employee of the month photo indicates that she has a fairly good self-image, something that people who lose weight due to eating disorders tend not to have."

"Why a break-up? How do you know it wasn't because of a death in the family, or because something like not getting into the school she wanted?"

"Most likely it was a bad break-up as she has a pendent that she keeps fingering through the top layer of her blouse. She does it subconsciously but keeps realizing what she's doing and looks forlorn and sad. It's obviously from someone important to her, like a boyfriend. The way she does it means that it's been a habit for quite some time, yet looking forlorn indicates a loss of someone dear to her – either, as you mentioned, due to death, or because of a break-up. However, her female co-workers seem concerned about her more so than her male co-workers. Women tend to group together to encourage other women over bad break-ups. If it was a death or for some other reason, all the co-workers would be trying to cheer her up."

"What's wrong with guy friends cheering up female friends after break-ups?"

"It's not that that it doesn't happen; it's just that that's generally the case."

"Here's your coffee," the waitress said, placing the coffee down in front of Shinichi before smiling sadly and walking off.

"She also smiles sadly at us as she likely thinks we're here on a date and is feeling nostalgic about her own dates with her ex."

Ran sighed and shook her head.

"Really, you are something else," Ran smiled. "Hanako-chan is one of my classes, and I've had her multiple times as my waitress. The last time I saw her on campus she told me how her boyfriend dumped her pretty harshly two and a half weeks ago."

"So you knew but were just testing me?" Shinichi asked.

"What if I was?" Ran said, with a big smile. "Acting as Sleeping Kogorou, I'm starting to try and get more into the mindset to understand how you're so observant. You always seem to find the smallest detail so quickly. Not that there aren't always cases popping up around you. Remember? Even just the last time we came here was when you were still, well...you know."

The last time Shinichi had visited the Royal Café had been when he'd followed Ran as Conan intent on finding out whom she was meeting with as her response of "Shinichi" had clearly been a lie. The case had involved a man being killed in the bathroom stalls with Ran's mom as one of the suspects. She had been an extremely helpful asset in leading the police to determining the culprit.

Speaking of Kisaki-san, Shinichi looked at the time, noticing she was a few minutes late. As Ran had arrived first and Shinichi second, Kisaki-san's momentary absence gave Ran time to bring up his time as Conan.

"You know, sometimes I really miss having Conan-kun...having _you_ in the house. Even though I had always suspected that you and Conan-kun were the same, it was almost like he...like you…like Conan-kun _died_ when I found out." Shinichi swallowed the coffee along with his guilt. The bitterness hit his stomach, leaving it twisted. He'd always known Ran would have a hard time dealing with learning of his deceit, but somehow, he'd never really realized that she would mourn Conan's absence so much. "Still, it's been over a year already. I think, maybe..." Ran murmured, fiddling with her cup of tea. Shinichi sat his cup of coffee down, waiting for Ran to continue, leaning in toward her hopefully.

"We talk all the time, but I miss…"

He could tell that she had more to say, and a sliver of hope bloomed in his chest. Suddenly that small drop of hope felt like it would last him for a thousand lonely nights. However, whatever Ran was going to add died on her lips as Kisaki-san walked into the café. Both he and Ran sat back from each other. The action did not go unnoticed as Kisaki-san frowned, visibly crestfallen at having interrupted what was obviously a serious conversation.

"Sorry, I'm late," Kisaki-san apologized, sliding into the booth seat next to Ran. "I wanted to make sure that Kuroba-kun got the message that Shinichi-kun would be speaking with him today instead of me."

"Ah, I see," Ran said. It made sense, but Shinichi would bet money that she had also been trying to give him and Ran some alone time together before she got there. Sighing, he turned toward Hanako-san, who had returned to take their food orders.

Eating lunch together felt nice. He would admit to himself that sometimes he missed being Conan too. He missed the feeling of fulfillment he'd had that he and Ran were together like a family.

After Conan had "returned" to his parents, Kisaki-san had come back to the Mouri household. She wasn't there very long before she and Occhan had had another falling out, but she still came by frequently. Ran was, as per usual, trying to convince her to come home permanently.

"Sometimes," Kisaki-san said, with a pointed look at Shinichi, "you will find that when a man's vices, habits, and interests seem more important than you, that it's hard to want to be around him."

_ Oi, what happened to being on my side?_ Shinichi wondered to himself. Shinichi knew it was a jab that he'd been away on a case for so long without bothering to come back to visit, except that Kisaki-san didn't know that he'd been there the whole time with Ran. Then again, if she did know, she might not be too happy about it.

"That's because men are idiots," Ran countered.

"Oi."

"And you can't help but love them for it."

"Ran," Shinichi said surprised, looking at Ran as she blushed, her eyes downcast as she picked up and sipped at her tea.

Kisaki-san cleared her throat, more in a way to remind them that she was still there rather than in annoyance.

"Ah, anyway…" Ran began, blushing a little. "Okaa-san – I just remembered! When Otou-san helped solve that child-kidnapping case last week," Ran gave a little apologetic grin to Shinichi when she said this. In reality, it had been Shinichi's help that had solved the case with Ran acting as "Sleeping Kogorou" to explain Shinichi's deduction. Shinichi gave a little shrug. The little girl was safe. That was the most important thing: not who had solved the case. "…the parents invited the two of us out to that new expensive Italian restaurant near the Haido Shopping Mall. When they found out that _you_ were his wife, they wanted you to come! It's tomorrow night. Please say yes! Please come!"

"We can talk about that later. You wanted to know about Kuroba-kun's case," Kisaki-san directed her last comment to Shinichi as she pulled out a file. Ran made a frustrated sound as her mother expertly redirected the topic of conversation.

"Ah, yes." Shinichi opened the file folder, looking at the picture of Kuroba Kaito clipped to the papers.

"He looks just like Shinichi!" Ran said, looking at the picture upside down.

"I was surprised myself when I first saw him. I had to do a double take. After I met with him, I called your parents, Shinichi-kun. Really, the two of you even sound alike. I could have sworn you were twins separated at birth. Your father explained that you were not related, but that he had been friends with his father through Yukiko-chan since he had taught her how to do quick change and simple disguises."

"Quick-change?" Ran asked.

"It's a performer's trick that can refer to quickly changing personalities, or even further allowing them to change clothes quickly: hence the term quick-change. Generally it involves having one outfit that is able to turn into one or multiple other styles. Sometimes wigs and masks are included for a more thorough disguise," Shinichi explained.

"Like Kaitou Kid!"

Shinichi laughed. "Yes, exactly like Kaitou Kid." And after discussing the case, Shinichi was very eager to meet the master of disguise himself.

* * *

"What's that?"

Kaito's head turned at the surprised voice of one of the inmates. Currently, he was helping with the prison laundry as part of his daily tasks. Since he was still awaiting trial, he had not been put through the fifteen day orientation nor had he had his skills tested to find what type of work would best suit his skill set. Even though he was not required to work, Kaito had volunteered to do so in order to make money in order to "purchase" things inside the prison. And to keep from being bored. He would have to remember never to tell his mother that he found doing laundry had kept him from being bored to death.

Kaito looked back at the man who had spoken. The guy, Fujimoto Takumi – age thirty six, frequently traded parts of his meal with Kaito. Kaito refused to eat the fish, and there were others who didn't mind trading for it.

"It's nothing, Fujimoto," Kurokawa Hayato, a man in his early seventies hush whispered to his fellow inmate. He was another one of the men who Kaito could count on to trade his undesirable meal items with.

"No, no. There's something over there," Fujimoto insisted.

More people began to look. Behind one of the large bins that held the laundry, something was clearly shuffling. Before Fujimoto reached it, Kaito took a look at Kurokawa who was hobbling over toward the younger man.

"Don't-" Kurokawa whispered to Fujimoto. If Kaito hadn't been close by, he wouldn't even have heard him.

But before Kurokawa could stop Fujimoto, the younger man had reached down and pulled out –of all things – a cat.

"It's a cat!" Fujimoto declared, delightedly. "She's a beauty, too! Look at her! Such a sleek gray cat with cute little black mittens around her paws!"

"What are you two doing?" The harsh voice of the prison guard demanded. Both of their faces fell. Fujimoto's fell with guilt, while Kurokawa's fell with despair. As the guard approached, looks of fear at the thought of what the discovery might mean for them passed their faces. Fujimoto turned his back while Kurokawa tried to cover the animal being cradled in the other man's arms.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Fujimoto had stumbled upon Kurokawa's beloved yet unacceptable pet. This prison guard in particular was a strict stickler for rules. Raising your eyes to him or speaking disrespectfully meant punishment for sure. Being discovered with a cat would be unthinkable torment. Kaito quickly stepped up toward the two men, smiling broadly at both of them before turning toward the prison guard.

"It's a cat, sir!" Kaito said jovially. The guard looked at him skeptically before turning back to look at Fujimoto and Kurokawa who were glaring at him for giving them both away.

"So I heard. Cats are not allowed. Where is the mangy feline?" the prison guard demanded, his eyes like icicles, cold and sharp.

"Not a real cat, sir! It's on the uniform!" Kaito held up a prison shirt with a caricature of a cat – gray with black paws. Kurokawa and Fujimoto looked stunned, especially Fujimoto who no long held a cat in his hands. He looked about him on the ground, wondering where the cat had vanished to all of a sudden.

The prison guard looked at them all strangely before ordering them back to work. Kaito grinned widely at the two men before heading back to his duties, his heart thudding in his chest.

"Kuroba-kun," Kurokawa began. Kaito shook his head.

"You can't keep cats in here. First of all, the guards will be more leery. But second of all, there are a lot of people who have cat allergies. Having a cat in the laundry where she can get her fur all over those people's clothes isn't safe."

"I-I know that. B-but still! I just, I mean…she needs a good home."

"Don't worry. I'll figure something out," Kaito promised to Kurokawa. The other man nodded and the two of them got back to work.

There were strict rules in the prisons. Those who did not follow them could be put into solitary confinement for long periods of time. Kaito didn't want either of the two men to have to go through that. Especially since they both helped him out with his fish issues! Not to mention he'd heard that there was a man who kept waking up with symptoms of a severe allergic reaction. No, the poor kitty had to go. From inside of his shirt, the cat in question meowed at him.

Looking back at Fujimoto, a thought struck him.

"I know what I can do with you," Kaito murmured happily.

The cat merely mewled back at him.

**Continued in Chapter 5: Through the Looking Glass…**

* * *

Next chapter – Kaito and Shinichi face to face! :)

Usually we don't get to see how criminals are treated in the Detective Conan series. There are only two manga related cases that I can think of; the first that comes to mind was the Detective Koushien case when the female detective's friend is accused of being a murderess and kills herself due to the harsh treatment by the police (Chapter 566). The harsh interrogation method of the police has also been made light of during chapter 404 where Takagi is "interrogate" in regards to his date with Satou. While most of the Detective Conan police officers do not seem to portray this, Japan's treatment of suspects and prisoners alike has come under the radar in more recent years due to a violation of human rights.

Prisoners can only speak during certain allotted times. Depending on the offense, prisoners face severe punishments. Even in the last ten years, it was legal for guards to suspended prisoners in leather clamps or with the use of an arresting rope for long periods of time. Thankfully that practice has been abolished.

I tried to keep it as realistic to what would/could happen to a Japanese suspect as possible. Daiyo kangokus are the facilities within the police buildings that we usually see when the police are heavily questioning the suspects in the Detective Conan cases. For example, in episode 479, the Three Days With Hattori Heiji case (chapter 566: Hot Blooded Detective), the girl who committed suicide would have been interrogated in a daiyo kangoku. The difference is that the questioning is done in the police station by the police detectives who are in charge of the case, which naturally makes sense, but laws have recently changed due to the lack of rights the people being held in the daiyo kangoku have. Still, prisoners can be held up to twenty three days without an official charge, without bail, and without access to a lawyer, and in most cases, no physician is on the premises since a daiyo kangoko are holding cells within the police station. Very interesting reading out there if you do a quick google search for daiyo kangoko.

In defense of the Japanese police and the reasoning behind this mindset, generally they do not arrest anyone unless they already have substantial evidence to put them away. Since there is evidence against them, many police try to pressure the suspects into confessing.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

~ Jelp


	5. Chapter 5: Through the Looking Glass

Finally – Kaito and Shinichi face to face! Enjoy the chapter. :)

**Meitantei**

**Chapter 5: Through the Looking Glass**

Kaito received the information from the guard that a detective was going to meet and discuss his case with circumspection. He'd already seen Kisaki Eri-san. He knew that she had never lost a case, yet at the same time, losing a case as a defense lawyer did not always mean absolving a person from all guilt. In this instance, her case was that he had not intentionally killed Motoyama-san. The charge of theft would still hold, but she was determined to prove him innocent of murder and at least commute his sentence.

In addition to Kisaki Eri-san, he had also seen Hakuba Saguru. Hakuba had offered to help. Sort of. Kaito had been unsurprised that Hakuba was working to prove that he hadn't killed anyone, yet rather upset nonetheless to learn that Hakuba believed he had actually committed the theft. Hakuba's parting words would not be stricken from Kaito's memory anytime soon:

_ "Clearly you were sloppy in terms of scouting out the jewel. Karma came to get you in the end. But don't worry, the murder charge won't stick."_

Somehow Hakuba's reassurance had been less than reassuring.

Still, if Kisaki-san proved that it was manslaughter, it would release him since the prosecution was adamant that it was a homicide. If they pushed through the charge without changing what he was being charged with, he would be released and not recharged due to the legality of double jeopardy. That was only if the prosecutor from District Court did not pursue the case to the High Court and then to the Supreme Court. There were so many ifs in those scenarios. He just wanted people to know he was innocent!

But Kaito was a little leery when he'd gotten word from Kisaki-san saying that she was going to have a detective helping her with the case and that he would be meeting with him in Kisaki-san 's place. If it was her husband, well...Kaito knew how much of a fraud Mouri Kogorou was. If it was Hakuba who had decided to go to her to present what evidence he had, well...that wasn't all that comforting, though at least he would be helpful in clearing him of homicide charges.

As the guard led him away to meet his visitor, he hoped the person was competent.

* * *

Shinichi had always felt that one day he would see Kaitou Kid's true face behind the monocle and disguises. Seeing it for the first time while Kid was behind bars (or rather through the thick glass between prisoners and visitors) and not because Shinichi had unmasked him personally felt extremely unsatisfying.

Shinichi knew it was a petty thought and frankly didn't give a damn. The whole situation irked him. Besides the fact that Kid had been caught, he'd been caught for a crime Shinichi was almost positive he hadn't committed, meaning that there was still a murderer on the loose. While Kid wasn't exactly innocent, Shinichi had always felt that if criminals committed crimes other than murder and were able to rehabilitate themselves, then depending on the situation, Shinichi was willing to make exceptions to help them out.

Idly Shinichi's mind ran back to the cases where he had been able to prevent a murder or suicide. His mind drifted to other cases where he had helped clear misunderstandings of attempted murders, helping the people involved patch things back up before more than one life was ruined.

His mind was brought back to the present as the guard who had been escorting him into the visitors' room motioned for him to sit.

Shinichi sat in the cold metal chair the guard indicated. He put down the folder Kisaki-san had given him and pulled out his detective notebook, making notes of all the video cameras and the guards' positions. Besides the guard who escorted Kuroba-kun into the room, there was one outside the door, and from the empty seat closest to the door on the other side of the glass paneling, Shinichi expected only one other guard to appear.

It would not be easy to openly accuse Kuroba-kun of being Kaitou Kid with so many witnesses unless he wanted to further complicate matters for Kuroba-kun. He also couldn't explain that he knew what the face of his assistant looked like, but no matter. He was sure if the Moonlight Magician could make riddles, surely he could solve them.

When the guard on the other side of the glass escorted Kuroba Kaito to sit in front of him, he watched as recognition and apprehension then hope crossed his features. Kuroba-kun sat down, both of them looking at each other through the glass for a moment. Shinichi gave him a short nod and did his best to keep the smirk off his face but knew it wasn't working. They both picked up the phone receivers, but Shinichi made sure to be the first to speak –

– which was good for Kaito since he was having trouble finding words. A little mantra had gotten stuck in his head that went a little something like _crapcrapcrapcrap_. Kudou Shinichi was currently sitting across from him and seemed to be trying to tame the shit-eating "Gotcha!" grin. It was not working. The detective looked far too pleased for Kaito's liking. Still, Kisaki-san had said he was there to help with his case. At least he'd be able to prove he wasn't a murderer.

"You received the message that Kisaki-san had traded her time to allow me to speak with you, correct?" Shinichi asked. Kaito nodded, taking a deep breath and composing himself.

"Yes, but she didn't tell me who it was. To have the great detective of the east on my case certainly makes me hope that you'll be able to prove my innocence," Kaito said, flashing a smile. Right away Shinichi had been able to see the height and body type were similar to Kaitou Kid's. Once he spoke, the voice intonation, the manner of speech, the dulcet murmurs were all that Shinichi recognized from Kid. But being put in jail had clearly drained his good humor despite the wide grin Kaito flashed at him.

Most people who were innocent of crimes and incarcerated burned with an anger of the injustice of being blamed for something they didn't do or fear and desperation of never getting out.

Kaito's manner spoke of a slight fear, but it was overwhelmed by a weary resolve. The hope at seeing Shinichi had clearly meant he believed in Shinichi's ability to help solve what had really happened, meaning he wasn't the culprit in this case. However, the weariness – not to mention the _wariness_ at seeing Shinichi – meant that he was guilty of something and perhaps felt that his incarceration was not entirely unjustified. He was clearly uneasy with Shinichi snooping into his case. Yet Kaito had thrown up a good front, not giving much away. Someone who wasn't looking for the facial tics and tells would have missed them. In fact, if it had been someone else, Shinichi might have missed them. But there was something strangely familiar about Kid's face – and not just because he couldn't deny that the two of them looked alike. He was probably one of the few people who had gotten a good look at Kid's face. Shinichi, as Conan, had probably noticed more than anyone else what Kaitou Kid really looked like. Being short and looking up at Kid had given him the advantage since the thief generally tilted his hat to hide his eyes from those at eye-level. Sadly, for quite longer than he would have liked, Shinichi had been anything but on eye level.

The fact that Kaitou Kid would feel guilty for his crimes yet continue with them despite the weight of it upon his conscious spoke of a greater purpose than just stealing. Once this case was over, Shinichi felt he would enjoy figuring out what that purpose was.

"Kisaki-san has given me the information for your case, and I have reviewed several aspects that I wish to go over with you for clarification," Shinichi said, wishing he had more time to speak with Kaito. Considering the fact that Kaitou Kid was a jewel thief, it spoke volumes to Shinichi that he must truly not keep what he stole if he was unable to pay the bail to release him for the time before his trial.

Shinichi made a mental note to ask Kisaki-san the cost of the bail. The ludicrous thought that he was planning on how to help bail Kaitou Kid out of jail made him want to smirk, but, despite everything, he didn't want to give that expression to Kaito. At least, no more than he already had.

"First and foremost, do you believe your trick resulted in Motoyama-san's death?" Shinichi asked, his face schooled, and his posture set. Kaito took a deep breath.

"No. Besides the fact that I always triple check my tricks, _I_ didn't plant a trick. I've reviewed it countless of times in my head since being in here, but I didn't hear him yell, nor do I understand how I could be considered the culprit. It's like someone else set up a trick, and I was blamed for it. I can't see how it could have gone so wrong. Yet..." Kaito 's shoulders slumped. Shinichi nodded to himself. Kaito insisted that there was no trick and that he hadn't been involved. But everyone else had an alibi during Motoyama-san's death. And from what Shinichi could tell, people thought it was some sort of prank which Kaito had set up. From all the details that Shinichi had gleaned from this case, everyone had agreed that the "trick" had resulted in Motoyama-san's death. The question came down to if it was malicious or a horrible prank gone wrong. Meaning was it indirectly Kaito's fault or was it the work of someone whose alibi wasn't real?

Having experienced Kaitou Kid's tricks first hand, he was sure that the master thief would have triple checked everything just as he said. The fact that Kaito felt he hadn't caused the death meant that another trick was involved; another trick that pointed to Motoyama-san being murdered with Kuroba Kaito as the fall guy. If Kaito insisted that he hadn't set up a trick then clearly it meant someone else had to be the culprit.

It wasn't to say that tricks didn't go wrong or that Kaito couldn't be lying. After all, Kaitou Kid had made mistakes before with impersonations, but not with the tricks, at least, to Shinichi's knowledge. There were too many inconsistencies, too many holes leading back to Kaito for it to have been intentional – on Kaito's part. Surely Kid would lie if it meant to save himself, yet from Shinichi's experience, Kid wouldn't lie if it meant it would physically harm someone. Not to mention, Shinichi's gut reaction was that he was, in fact, looking at a murder where Kaito was the fall guy.

"For this next question, please be as honest as you can," Shinichi said, looking at Kaito in the eye. "Did you steal that big jewel?"

"No," Kaito's firmness and his glare were telling. Without the air to talk freely, neither would ask about what the other knew. Shinichi's use of the term "big jewel" had clearly hinted to Kaito that Shinichi suspected him of being Kid. Yet, if truth be told, Shinichi had suspected that Kaito hadn't stolen it to begin with. Shinichi nodded again.

"I didn't think you did," Shinichi murmured half to himself, half to Kaito. This time when Kaito's shoulder dipped, it was from relief.

"You don't think I did?" Kaito asked. Shinichi gave him a half smile.

"There wasn't a notice," Shinichi whispered but noticed the guards looking at him intently so he spoke louder. Kaito's eyes widened at the implications, but Shinichi pressed forward. "It seems to me that a magician would know how to better conceal his tricks. Really, leaving fingerprints? It seems contrived to me. This leads me to my next question – when they found the jewel on you, had you put your hand on or near the place where it was found?"

"No. I don't remember touching the jewel at all that day. I touched it once, awhile ago, but-"

"Wait. You did touch it at some point? When was it? How long ago? Who was there? Who knew about it?" Shinichi asked, his eyes hardening. Kaito looked taken aback at his sudden line of questioning.

"Ah, well. It was a week or two before Motoyama-san died. Motoyama-san was there, along with his niece Reiko-san, Kyoko-san, Nakahara-san, and Yamamoto-san."

Shinichi jotted down their names and asked for him to elaborate on who each person was.

"From what you can remember, explain who handled the jewel and in what order along with any other strange habits or anything peculiar you noticed."

Kaito explained the order of who had handled the jewel and some other details.

"But we all handled it. How could I have been the only one to leave prints if there was someone who touched it both before and after I had? That was the last time I touched it. If my fingerprints were on it, all of ours should be on it. Instead of five sets, only mine are on it. The person in charge of cleaning the jewel also gave a detailed report that the jewel was cleaned that very day. Being a master of sleight of hand," Kaito said, not smugly, just as a matter-of-fact, "I would have noticed if someone had tried to switch the jewel under my nose."

"Duly noted," Shinichi said. Even so, he had an idea of how the true culprit had manipulated the situation. Getting the proof would be the difficult thing. If only he had been present at the scene! He looked at his watch, noting the time. "Don't worry about the how – that's my job. Remember that a detective is a critic who follows in a criminal's footsteps and figures out their tricks."

"Oi, oi. Nothing creative about a murderer," Kaito intoned.

"_I_ never said there was," Shinichi quipped back. Looking at Kid behind bars, knowing what he did now about Kuroba Kaito and his father's death, his earlier comment about him checking his equipment along with Kaito's apparent mistrust of detectives...

When a person distrusted the authorities because of a failure to properly investigate a case, it would be very plausible that they would take matters into their own hands to seek justice. Adding Kuroba Toichi's death to the list of things to look into after this case, Shinichi began to start his questioning as he took down Kaito's statements of what exactly happened from the time he entered the house until the time he was escorted from the premises.

Shinichi's biggest area of interest was the "prank gone wrong."

"There was no prank. It's just what they're saying. I didn't do any magic trick. I didn't do _anything_. Motoyama-san – if you see the video – basically backed up, hit a door that was not latched properly, stumbled through the door, and tumbled down the stairs. That was the extent of it. I was in a room nearby the whole time and didn't notice a thing," Kaito added bitterly.

Shinichi asked him multiple questions about the scenario of what he knew, finding the entire thing extremely strange.

"I'll have to see the video."

"I haven't even seen it. I was just told what happened. I don't think I'm on it. It just implies that the person who scared him must have been nearby and pulled some sort of prank that scared him enough to make him stumble backwards. But I swear I didn't do it."

"Hmm."

After Kaito's narrative, there was only a minute or two left before Shinichi had to leave. Deciding that he had what he needed for the time being, he would wait for the next round of questions next visit when he had more time and after he had further investigated his leads. Explaining this to Kaito, he watched as the thief, thinned his lips together. His eyes darted behind Shinichi to the guard stationed there, as well as to the ones behind him.

"How did you hear about my case?" Kaito asked.

"A little hyacinth macaw told me in passing."

At this, Kaito's eyes widened dramatically, but he held his tongue, waiting for Shinichi to say more. Kaito wasn't going to give away more than he had to. Shinichi was only going to give him one clue.

"Tomorrow I will be heading to the Motoyama Bird Sanctuary. Do you have anything else to suggest that I look into?" Shinichi asked. Kaito merely shook his head, so Shinichi said his goodbyes.

"Wait, Kudou-kun," Kaito said, stopping Shinichi.

"Yes?"

"Hakuba Saguru, he's a detective too-"

"Yes, I'm familiar with him."

"I – I know he's investigating things on his own. He believes that Motoyama-san's death was an accident. Either that, or possibly someone set me up. However, he thinks that I _did_ steal the jewel. Please believe me when I say I didn't steal that jewel."

Shinichi gave Kaito a blank look. Did Hakuba-kun have an inkling as to Kaito's identity? Would he truly not investigate the truth behind this case because of Kuroba-kun's past deeds? Perhaps he would. Then again, all the evidence did currently point to that conclusion. Shinichi, for his part, still had a few theories that he wanted to work out.

"I already told you that I don't believe you stole it. I'm familiar with how single minded he can be. Seems like it'll be a good challenge for me, proving him wrong," Shinichi said, giving Kaito a wink. Kaito looked extremely grateful.

"Thank you."

Shinichi shook his head.

"It's what I do."

**Continued in Chapter 6: Investigating…**

* * *

A hyacinth macaw is a blue parrot. For those who don't recall, the Blue Parrot is the name of the bar that Jii Konosuke owns. They're actually not at all little, but I liked the expression a little birdie told me. Ah, well. Hope you liked the chapter! ~ Jelp


	6. Chapter 6: Investigating

**Meitantei**

**Chapter 6: Investigating**

At 7:15am the next day, Shinichi sat by his computer with an array of diagrams, arrows, and sketches littering the desktop before him. He'd had little sleep the night before, but his mind was alert and humming with the workings of the case. The only problem was that the place he wanted to go didn't allow visitors until after 9:00am.

Yesterday evening Shinichi had organized the information he had obtained and had already gone over it multiple times. He'd even dedicated quite a bit of his evening to revisiting the taped conversation he'd had the day before with Kuroba-kun in meticulous detail to see if there was a code or hint that Kid had thrown in. Sadly, there were no coded messages that he could discern, but thankfully he had multiple leads as to where to start looking when he headed to the bird sanctuary today.

With any luck, he would obtain a copy of the video of the crime from Satou-keiji before he left his house to begin doing legwork for the case.

The information Shinichi had acquired from Kisaki-san, Kuroba-kun, and from his contacts at police headquarters laid out the information as thus:

Victim: Motoyama Kenji – 58 years of age. Owner of a bird sanctuary and bird facility known for breeding and selling birds. Died due to a "prank gone wrong." Idly Shinichi wondered who had written _that_ down for cause of death.

Current suspect: Kuroba Kaito – 19 years of age. Known for pulling pranks and tricks. Arrested for malicious intent when a "prank" resulted in Motoyama-san's death and due to being found with a stolen jewel in his possession. Kuroba-kun said that there was no prank.

Suspicious person one: Motoyama Reiko – 23 years of age. Niece of Motoyama-san; inheritor of the Motoyama Bird Sanctuary. Present at the bird sanctuary at the time of her uncle's death as well as during the only time Kuroba-kun handled the jewel. Has an alibi during the incident.

Suspicious person two: Nakahara Tsutomo – 30 years of age. Amateur ornithologist and falconer employed by Motoyama-san. He was present at the time of Motoyama-san's death. His video recording is what resulted in proof of his location during the time of his employer's death. He was also present at the only time Kuroba-kun handled the jewel.

Suspicious person three: Akutagawa Kyoko – 21 years of age. Housemaid to Motoyama-san. She was present at the time when Kuroba-kun handled the jewel and was the last person to have seen Kuroba-kun before the murder. Also has an alibi during the incident.

Suspicious person four: Ueda Yoshio – 42 years of age. Butler and responsible for cleaning the jewel the morning of Kuroba-kun's arrival. Also present during the time that Kuroba-kun handled the jewel and likewise supposedly has an alibi during the time of the incident.

With the possible suspects in line, Shinichi did a little research about the facility. Since there were no gaming birds or falcons present, the place was more like a glorified bird shop than a real bird sanctuary as most of the people who went there did so to purchase the birds rather than to watch the birds.

There were several pictures online of the inside, and he made notes of the entrances and different areas.

As he was making notes on the scene, he received an e-mail notifying him that he'd received the video he'd requested from police headquarters from Satou-keiji along with a message saying he was invited out to a hastily arranged karaoke party with them at 9:00pm. With his oh-so-lovely singing voice, most people avoided inviting him to karaoke outings, but Satou-keiji tended to invite him nonetheless. Usually they gave him a little more warning, but it had said it was hastily arranged. For a moment, Shinichi re-read the e-mail. While on first glance, it was not unusual for Satou-keiji to invite him to police gatherings, the fact that she would do so in the same message as her response to his request for information was telling. Apparently she had really wanted to make sure he read it by including it with case details.

The other telling thing was that it was before 8:00am in the morning, the karaoke outing wasn't until 9:00pm, but Satou-keiji was referring to it as "hastily" arranged.

His detective instincts were telling him something was off, but he decided he would dwell on it later as his mind was currently focused on the case at hand.

Usually he read the newspaper or watched multiple news broadcasts in the evening and/or morning. Due to this case, he hadn't disentangled himself from it long enough to indulge some of his usual habits. If he had, he'd understand the intent behind Satou-keiji's invite.

Disregarding the invite for the moment, he focused his attention on the video. Shinichi clicked the video attachment, ready for new clues.

The video started with Motoyama-san asking for clarification that it was recording. Nakahara-san was more than happy to say that it was. The two men were standing in front of a door which Motoyama-san opened. Chirping birds made their presence known as soon as the door swung open. The two walked into what was clearly an antechamber meant to prevent birds from flying into the rest of the house. Shinichi could see the bird sanctuary through the caged area around the antechamber – almost like a scene from nature transported inside a large enclosure, trees and flowers painted along the walls with wide skylights to let in natural lighting.

However, the room – or rather, the caged area that connected the house to the bird sanctuary – was about three meters deep with a bright yellow painted caging. The door leading from the landing was also made of the same caging. Through the small holes, Shinichi could see the birds as they flew around freely amongst the area kept for them. There were two entrances to the bird sanctuary. According to the website, the one closest to the side room where all the caged birds were kept was only for invited guests as it led into Motoyama-san's house. At the time of the suspected murder, the main entrance had been locked. The room where Kuroba-kun had been in during the time of Motoyama-san's death was close to this door on the upper landing, meaning that if they had come in from this entrance, the heavy shut of the door should have alerted Kuroba-kun to their arrival.

The room in question wasn't caught on the recording, but Kuroba-kun had told him that off to the left side of the landing the room housed the birds that were being moved and/or ready for people to buy. Kuroba-kun had been in there the entire time but hadn't realized that anything was going wrong outside let alone that there were others nearby. Even on the recording, the bang of the door opening and closing was extremely loud. How could Kuroba-kun have not heard it?

Motoyama-san cocked his head to the left looking toward the door before gesturing Nakahara-san to move on down the steps on his own.

"Nakahara-san, why don't you go down first? I just wanted to check something I thought I heard in the cages room. Start recording the area from the steps down."

If Motoyama-san had actually gone into the cages room, he would have run into Kuroba-kun. This directly countered Kuroba-kun's statement.

Nakahara-san walked down the steps and began taking recordings of the area as requested. From what Shinichi could tell Motoyama-san had closed the cage door but not locked it. Clearly he was not concerned with leaving the door unattended as he was just going into a room close by. Even so, Shinichi would make sure to get a closer look at the entire area once he visited the location.

There was some sort of incoherent exclamation on the video before Motoyama-san could clearly be heard yelling, "Whatever prank you're pulling, this isn't funny. Take whatever you want!" Nakahara-san hadn't immediately turned around and recorded Motoyama-san. However, Nakahara-san's voice was clearly heard yelling Motoyama-san's name in concern.

The video camera whipped around, and the next thing Shinichi saw was Motoyama-san backing up toward the caged door. The dark lighting from the room, poor video quality, and the bright, natural lighting beaming down on top of Nakahara-san made it nearly impossible to see if anyone else was in the caged area, let alone to make out who the person was. The only person Shinichi could see through the yellow bars was Motoyama-san.

As Motoyama-san hadn't latched the door properly, it swung open as he backed up into it. He looked over his shoulder in utter terror as he stumbled backward. With his unexpected momentum, he didn't seem to be able to stop himself as he stumbled, hit the railing, and tumbled backward, falling to the ground below. His body was not immediately visible as there were shrubbery and trees blocking the view. The thud from the body, however, must have upset the birds in the area as a smattering of different birds squawked and hollered as they flew off and away.

"Motoyama-san!" Nakahara-san cried as he dropped the camera. As it hit the floor the video feed cut.

Shinichi frowned. It was unfortunate that the video was cut there, but it was pretty obvious that Nakahara-san had been using a flip camera phone to do the recording which must have shut upon hitting the ground.

From the reports, it appeared that Nakahara-san had checked Motoyama-san immediately afterward. He landed on concrete and did not survive the fall.

Nakahara-san had called the police right after checking for Motoyama-san's vitals. He waited in the bird sanctuary area for the police to arrive. When Nakahara-san went up the steps, the only person nearby was Kuroba Kaito who was in the room adjacent to the yellow caged area. According to Kuroba-kun, he was completely oblivious to what was going on. Kuroba-kun said the only suspicious noise he'd heard were a number of the birds chirping loudly all of a sudden. However, since there were so many birds, he hadn't checked to see what was going on as he had been in the middle of tending to an injured bird.

Only a few minutes later, the police came in. When Nakahara-san said that Motoyama-san had said, "Take whatever you want," the police checked Kuroba-kun and the bag he had. In Kuroba-kun's bag was Motoyama-san's family jewel. Kuroba-kun insisted again that he was in the cages room the entire time and did not hear anything. He also insisted that he hadn't pushed Motoyama-san nor had he frightened him. But as Nakahara-san had clearly not pushed or frightened Motoyama-san, and since Kuroba-kun was the only one in the area, it seemed that Kuroba-kun had to be the culprit, especially since he had the jewel.

Shinichi read through the reports detailing that everyone had an alibi for the time of Motoyama-san's death except for Kuroba-kun, which would usually mean the only person to not have an alibi was the culprit responsible for causing Motoyama-san to fall to his death. Not to mention that the person responsible for cleaning the jewel had done so just that morning, literally less than a half hour before Motoyama-san's death, leaving a very limited timeframe for when the jewel could have been stolen. Again, the only person with no alibi for the entire time was Kuroba-kun whose fingerprints happened to be on the jewel. However, as his bag had been in the cages room _inside_ of the room where Kaito had been tending the injured bird, it left a very small opportunity for someone else to have put the jewel in his bag since Kaito had never heard anyone come into the room.

It was a frustrating puzzle. There were things that seemed to have openings, but Shinichi needed to find the right pieces to put together.

Shinichi was fairly certain he understood the trick for getting Kuroba Kaito's fingerprints on the jewel and then to put the jewel in his bag, but there was no way to _prove_ the trick or to link it to any single person…yet.

After looking at the video, Shinichi made a few notes and decided it was finally time to head out to the Motoyama bird sanctuary where the incident took place.

* * *

The Motoyama Bird Sanctuary was more like an old mansion than what Shinichi would think of as a "bird sanctuary." For a moment, Shinichi wondered if he should pretend to be interested in merely visiting the bird sanctum, or if he should openly announce his intentions to look into the case. However, the decision was made for him when the housekeeper recognized him as the famous Meitantei Kudou Shinichi. Upon arriving, after he explained his purpose, he was welcomed into the estate portion of the property by the housekeeper and asked to wait in the foyer for Motoyama Reiko.

Motoyama Reiko was the niece of the deceased and the person who had inherited the bird sanctuary. The door to the estate portion of the property and the door to the main entrance of the sanctuary were next to each other. The housekeeper was likely responsible for answering both doors. While she was away fetching the current owner, Shinichi used the time to study the foyer that he had been led to.

The doors outside were separated by about a meter of wall space, but inside, there was a door that led between the two areas. Shinichi wondered if it would take him immediately into the sanctuary, or if there was another foyer area on the other side.

Mounted near the entrances were what appeared to be regular bird houses, but were more likely stealthily hidden security cameras. He'd noticed these as he walked by. As the police report had stated there had been no one who had entered from the outside, Shinichi deduced that there had to be some sort of surveillance on the outside of the house. Since the cameras caught the only entrances to the house, it was likely that this was an inside crime. On the inside of the house, he saw no cameras. It meant that the police had already viewed the footage to see if someone from the outside had been in or near the area at the time of the murder.

But something nagged at Shinichi. Motoyama-san had seemed shocked, like he didn't expect the person to be in the bird area. He wouldn't have greeted someone who he knew in such a strange manner. You wouldn't say, "Take whatever you want!" to someone you knew. You would talk with them first, try and figure out what was wrong before jumping to that conclusion. If the person had been wearing a mask, however, then it could startle Motoyama-san, resulting in that type of reaction. Yet the police had not found a mask in Kaito's possession.

Shinichi scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"I'm honored to meet such a great detective!" a tall woman with short, auburn-dyed haired called out to him, walking toward him at an extremely brisk pace. The much shorter housekeeper all but jogged to keep up. Out of breath, she ran ahead of her employer, trying to keep up with traditional duties and formalities.

"Kudou-sama, this is Motoyama Reiko-dono," the housekeeper introduced, rather unnecessarily.

"I'm guessing you're not here to visit the birds," Motoyama-dono deduced.

"If you're free, I would like to ask you a few questions about the night your uncle died, Motoyama-dono."

"Please, call me Reiko-san, Kudou-kun," she smiled at him warmly.

"Reiko-san, then."

"I'm so excited to hear that you're here to investigate my uncle's death," Reiko-san simpered at him. "I'm a big fan of all your work. I must say, though, now that I see you in person, I can't help but think you look a lot like Kaito-kun. Are you related?"

"No. But even if we were, I would still be investigating the truth of what happened. That is to say, I will not completely wipe _anyone_ from my suspects list until I have all the facts. That means that I will be investigating from scratch, and, as I mentioned, I would like to ask you a few questions."

"You mean you suspect me? Hmm, I suppose I should thank you." This surprised Shinichi. Most people became extremely indignant when they were suspects. "I did not kill my uncle, and I am sure that with your deductions you will see that. I do, however, want to make sure that the person responsible is behind bars. I really don't want to believe it was Kaito-kun, but quite frankly, I don't want it to be anyone else in the household either. I hope you find that the whole thing was just an accident. However, if you are investigating from scratch, and with your reputation, then I will be more than happy to help with anything I can. Why don't we go somewhere where we can talk more comfortably?" She turned her attentions briefly to the woman standing behind her. "Kyoko-chan? Please bring us some tea in the dining room."

Reiko-san gave him a rather flirtatious smile as she took him on a brief tour of the Motoyama estate – which she had moved into after her uncle passed away. She definitely didn't seem to be at all upset that he suspected her. She had even said that she was a fan of his work. It either meant that she was the murderer and completely confident that she wouldn't be found out, or she was sincerely a fan and expected him to solve the mystery as he had done countless of times before.

As they walked through the lavishly decorated home, Reiko-san gave small tidbits of family history. While they passed by photos, Shinichi took note that most of the pictures were of Reiko-san's uncle. In each one, he wore the same blazer. Shinichi asked about it, and Reiko-san happily explained that her uncle had received it from Wetlands International for his help in preventing construction in a wetland area up in Hokkaido with the Wild Bird Society of Japan. His efforts to preserve the birds' natural habitat had earned him the jacket. She continued to talk as they entered the dining room, chatting about how much her uncle had loved to travel, explaining how he had a home in Hokkaido as well. Her talk turned briefly to her uncle's love of skiing, before turning back to explaining what had happened the day her uncle died. Shinichi noted that, despite his age, he was still quite athletic. By this time, she had led him into an ostentatiously designed dining room.

Shinichi eyed the décor warily. The seats were designed like birds. The arms of the wooden chairs were intricately crafted to look like wings of birds in various positions of flight. The base of the table was also wooden, but two thick pieces of glass covered the top. Birdseed, or what at least looked like bird seed, sat sandwiched between the two layers of glass. With the birdlike chairs and the birdseed like table, Shinichi felt like he was a bird sitting at a bird feeder.

"For the most part, we were all located in this room during the time of my uncle's death. You said that you would be investigating this as a murder. Does that mean you don't believe it was an accident?" Reiko-san asked.

"From the information I have acquired so far, it does not seem that way."

"But then doesn't that mean it has to be Kaito-kun?" Reiko-san looked rather crestfallen at this train of thought. It was the first time she hadn't been smiling since Shinichi had met the woman. "He was the only one in the room near where my uncle died. I'm not sure if you've seen the video, but he doesn't appear to have been pushed, but someone was definitely threatening him. The forensics team found no slippery substances on the top of the step or on my uncle's shoes, so he was definitely backing away and slipped due to fear." At these points, Shinichi took out his notebook and wrote them all down. "It seems to me that he slipped and fell because he got scared. Not to mention Kaito-kun was found with our family jewel in his things in that room. How else would he have gotten it?"

"There are some rather suspicious points mixed in amongst all the details. At cursory glance, it does appear that it has to be Kuroba-kun." Of course, he couldn't explain all of his suspicions, not yet. The case seemed like it should have been obvious: Kuroba Kaito had to be the culprit. Yet if they knew that Kuroba Kaito and Kaitou Kid were one in the same, they would know that he wouldn't have planned anything this sloppy. "The biggest suspicion hinting that Kuroba-kun is not the culprit is in fact that Kuroba-kun's prints are ON the jewel. If the jewel was indeed cleaned that day, and he really did intend to steal it, as no other fingerprints were found on the door to where the jewel was kept, and no evidence shows a forced break-in, this means his entry would have to have been done expertly. It seems unlikely that he would have broken in using gloves yet not have had gloves while handling the gem, nor would he have allowed the police to search his things on the off chance he had handled the jewel without gloves."

"You think someone planted the jewel amongst his things?"

"Exactly. At first glance, it seems like your uncle's fall was an accident. You said yourself that he fell because he was scared. However, if that was the case, why did Kuroba-kun have the jewel with his prints? If he were intending to steal something, after your uncle's fall, he would have tried to hide the jewel and wiped his prints. When I spoke with Kuroba-kun, he said that the only time he touched the jewel was a few weeks before your uncle's death. If that was the case, it meant that someone had to have premeditated that they would plant the jewel."

"Interesting. The other day I spoke with another detective, Hakuba Saguru. He believed that my uncle's death was an accident, and that the theft was likely from someone else. In fact, he was supposed to come by yesterday, but he never showed."

Shinichi raised his eyebrow at this information. Apparently Hakuba-san had come to the same conclusion that Shinichi had. Idly he wondered if Hakuba-san had merely been taunting Kuroba-kun when he had told Kid that the theft charge would stick since he would find something to prove that Kuroba-kun to be Kaitou Kid.

"It's unlike Hakuba-kun not to show up when he says he will. Perhaps you misheard the day he intended to arrive. Maybe he meant today," Shinichi offered, though felt a bit of unease even as he said it. It had to have been Reiko-san's mistake. Hakuba-san was anal retentive when it came to being on time.

"Perhaps. Still, you're both saying that Kaito-kun's innocent, so perhaps it's true."

"What Kuroba-kun says makes more sense. Nonetheless, I will be investigating from all angles."

"Assuming Kaito-kun is telling the truth."

"Yes, assuming he is telling the truth. Which, from your expression, you truly hope he is since you don't want him to be your uncle's killer, even if you don't want it to be someone else. Please tell me in detail what you remember about the evening your uncle showed Kuroba-kun the jewel."

"Hmm, it was nearly two months ago now, though probably only about a week or two before my uncle died. I can't believe how long it's been already since his death." She paused for a moment of reflection before continuing. "Kaito-kun is one of the magicians who my uncle supplies doves and several other birds to. Kaito-kun's father used to also get his doves from my uncle. The day Kaito-kun first looked at the jewel he had come over with the intention of purchasing two birds since two of his doves had died, and he was looking for replacements. My uncle used to be an entertainer in a circus, and so he always loved it when magicians came to visit and used to ask them to perform tricks for him. Quite frankly, my uncle has always liked to try and outwit the magicians when he can. If I'm not mistaken, my uncle met Kaito-kun's father at a venue where they were both performing, and he even helped perform in a few shows with Kaito-kun's father. Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to get side tracked."

"No, no. Any detail can be relevant," Shinichi said, noting down that Motoyama-san himself liked to try and outwit magicians.

"Ah, yes. Anyway, Kaito-kun had come over in the evening to look at the birds, but hadn't actually purchased any. My uncle had asked him to stay, and Kaito-kun ended up performing a mini magic show outside. It was beautiful – the moon shining brilliantly, a lovely fire going, and laughs all around because of the magic tricks Kaito-kun was performing. It was such a wonderful night! Everyone seemed to be having such a good time."

Shinichi watched as she paused, her content smile of nostalgia remembering a pleasant evening ruined, her features contorting to ones of distress as the reality of never having one like it again. Such emotionally raw feelings were telling.

"I forget how we got on the topic, but I think Kyoko-chan may have made some sort of reference to Kaitou Kid and magicians. They began saying that if Kaito-kun wanted to be such an amazing magician, he needed a jewel in order to rival Kaitou Kid." Shinichi smiled inwardly at the irony. "My uncle told Nakahara-san to bring out our family heirloom, the jewel that was found among Kaito-kun's things. I don't remember what all was said, but Kaito-kun said something along the lines of, 'This gem definitely does look worth stealing,' and a bunch of other things, but I thought he was just joking."

"It didn't strike you as odd for your uncle to bring out a jewel and look at it at random?" Shinichi asked.

"Oh my, no! He showed it to many people. There were lots of people who he would love to show the jewel to over and over again. Even if they had seen it once, my uncle would show it to them multiple times. Kyoko-chan, Nakahara-san, Ueda-san, and myself were all quite exasperated with my uncle's obsession with showing it off."

"Did Kuroba-kun seem interested in the jewel after that? Did he mention it again?"

"No. Actually, in fact, after he held it up to the moonlight, he merely smiled kind of sadly and gave it back."

"That struck you as odd, his smile?"

"Yes. He looked like he was disappointed when he held it up to the moon, as though he wanted something to happen. I thought that perhaps he had tried to perform a magic trick that didn't turn out right, but maybe it was because he wanted it."

Shinichi filed the information away. He'd seen Kaitou Kid hold up gems to the moon multiple times, but he'd never seen his face when he'd done it. Shinichi had assumed that Kid was just checking the jewel over. Just the other day Shinichi himself had held one of Kid's targeted gems up to the moonlight. Thinking back on it, the assistant's face seemed rather apprehensive then disappointed when he'd done so. Was Kid looking for a jewel that reacted to moonlight? If that was the case, then if the jewel hadn't reacted, it would mean that Kid wouldn't be interested in it. Of course, it wasn't as though Shinichi could say, "Kuroba-kun didn't steal the jewel because he already knew it wasn't the gem he really wanted to steal."

One thing was for sure, Shinichi was definitely interested in questioning Kuroba-kun again along those same lines.

**Continued in Chapter 7: Hits and Misses…**

I know some people go by the rule that the moon has to be full to check the jewel, but I've checked – thanks to those who responded to my inquries – and it's not mentioned specifically in the mangathat it has to be a full moon when Kaito is checking the jewel. However, I have seen places on Wikipedia and even on gogoanime that say that Kaitou Kid checks the gems against a full moon. This information is contradictory to what actually happens in the manga since the moon is not always full. The reference to it having to be a full moon seems to come from Suzuki Jirokichi's observation during one heist where he notes that Kaitou Kid usually flies off toward a full moon – for effect. While initially I mistook this as being the only time Kid could check the jewel, please note, it never states it implicitly in the Magic Kaito or Detective Conan manga, though it is expressed (apparently inaccurately) on various websites. Since one of the two most recent Kaitou Kid episodes has Kid checking the jewel against a non-full moon and the most recent Detective Conan manga has Kid checking the jewel up against a crescent moon, I'm going with it just has to be moonlight.

The fact that it has to be moonlight and not sunlight is very intriguing. Hoping to bring in the difference between light refraction from the moon versus the sun's rays later on in this story.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ~ Jelp


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